Interactive Broker's Oversized disejxftn folder

M

maryp

Is there anyway to make Interactive Brokers TWS folder smaller? Or can I create new folders and symlink them to my C:\Jts folder? I'm asking because I have many problems with the TWS Trader Workstation folder disejxftn being so large. It is over 1 gigabyte! I have a failry new dual core system, yet this excessively large folder - disejxftn - causes me many problems.

It causes me problems within TWS while the program is running. It takes forever for the folder to load when I click on SaveTo or Import.

Additionally, the large TWS Jts folder (specifically the disejxftn folder) causes Windows Explorer to take forever to display the folder contents. This is really the same problem with or without TWS running, as it brings Windows Explorer to a crawl. It sometimes locks up my system.

I haven't asked this before because for years I kept expecting IB to redo TWS's file structure and improve it, but instead it's getting worse as they keep making the disejxftn folder even larger.
 
Entire Jts folder on my mac is about 31MB; on my hp/windows7 it's 35MB. A gig of anything seems excessive, but I'm just a noob working mostly in sim, and don't see that folder you mention on either machine. What's in it?
 
i have JTS onb 3 PCs, one is 35MB one is MB and one is 47MB
i dont have this folder you mention....

so maby you should save your personal settings (save to) uninstall TWS and all Java versions, reinstall latest Java reionstall TWS and load your personal setings again. maby that helps...
 
my jts folder is 350 Mb but I saw several old logs and graphs in it.
I do'n have a problem, my disks are big enough.
Why not delete that folder after saving it to a USB ?
 
These folders of funny letters store your information ... all the audit reports etc.

Copy the contents off to somewhere else (so you have a back up of your audit reports and so one should you have any issues). Then delete everything in that folder except TWS.XML which contains your setup information.

I delete everything in \Jts\dhjunmvzw but that file each weekend because mine is on a ramdisk and have no problems. Your folder should only be a couple of MB then.

I also delete all the .log files in the main folder as they just get overwritten in the next week anyway.
 
It's possible you have some Windows-specific problem going on. I googled "windows size on disk" and found this page (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315688), which has some info for Windows XP. I didn't read the whole thing (actually just skimmed a bit), but enough to see that that kind of discrepancy between folder size and size on disk is not right. If you're using XP you may want to have a look.

I've done things similar to what kiwi_trader describes and his advice seems sound to me. Rather that moving the original Jts folder, you may be able to simply rename it (OLDJts or something like that--do this when TWS is not running), then TWS will create a brand new Jts folder next time you log in. Then, from the file menu in the main trading page that opens, you can choose to Load Settings File, navigate to the disejxftn folder in the old Jts folder, and choose tws.xml, which should have all your settings.

Edit--I see now that my suggestion is quite different from kiwi_trader's, which preserves all that other stuff in the Jts folder. Sorry for not reading for comprehension in the first place. However, you may find that the disejxftn folder itself is corrupt, and will need to be replaced.
 
Mary:

The disefxtn folder is your "personal" folder. It contains your setup information, trades by day for the last seven days (the files overwrite day by day), audit trail info, etc. I remember reading that the disefxtn is your IB account number encrypted somehow.

My dxxxxxxx folder is about 20 megs but it contains just 49 files. Your screen shot shows 335,683 files. A huge number. I primarily trade futures so I don't track/trade many different issues/symbols. But that discrepancy in number of files seems fantastic. The largest files in the the dxxxxx are the "tws.Mon.xml", tws.Tue.xml", etc. They are each about 2 meg (2,048 KB).

Have you ever worked with IB customer service and been told to activate some more detailed logging? Java can be set for different levels of detail, but I don't know more than that. Perhaps that is what is happening - it started logging in detail and never shutoff.

As a test -

There is an option to save your TWS setting on IB's servers so that if we have a local crash or start TWS from other than our normal location, we can get the setup from IB and not have to remember all the tweaks we've made to customize TWS to our needs. If you are not using that feature -
For this test: Start to log in to TWS. The login box has an option to store/use settings on the IB server. Select it. Log in to TWS. Log out.

Rename your disefxtn folder to disefxtn123. Then start TWS. TWS will be unable to locate your disefxtn folder. It will create a new one and use the settings from the IB server. Shut TWS down. See how many files TWS created in your new disefxtn folder. Restart TWS. Note how long it takes to start. Shutdown.

When I did this just now I found 10 files in the new dxxxxx folder. Comparing it to the old, renamed folder I found the extra files to be the daily files for the previous week. I don't use IB charts so I don't know if they are stored locally. I believe they are created on the fly, but perhaps their setup info is stored in the dxxxxx directory as well, so you might have a few more.

Delete the new disefxtn folder and rename the disefxtn123 back to disefxtn. Start TWS. Before logging in uncheck the store\use server settings box (unless you've always been using this feature). Log in. TWS should be back to its slow load.

Decide what to do. You can use the IB server to store your settings from the old folder. You'll have your standard TWS but will be unable to pull up the trades your made last week. (Login fom old folder with server store function on). Logoff. Rename and create a new folder as above, and run TWS for a few days and see what happens. Or you can call IB tech support and see what they have to say.

Jack
 
Quote from maryp:

Here's a pic of my JTS folder. Note the disejxftn Properties on the right.
The size says 71.7MB which isn't bad, but the Size on Disk says 1.29GB. I'm confused.
More...
The folder has 335 thousand files and each takes up a minimum of, I think, 4 kilobytes on disk even if they're only 1 byte long. I echo the advice to call IB and ask if there's something turned on that creates so many files. There should normally be only a few dozen files there.
 
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I'd rather not move or rename that large disexxxx folder because I have had to use it often lately, and there's much more in it than just the audit files.

The reason I've had to import file settings from that large folder lately is because TWS has not been holding my settings. I have checked "Save settings on Server" and "Save Settings" and it works most of the time. However, twice last week. I opened TWS the next morning and my screen and settings were from several days before. Thus, I had to import setting from that large folder, and not the tws.xml, but one of the dailies, such as tws.Mon.xml, in order to get back my latest TWS screen.

Since that has been happening, I now also save my settings to that same folder to be sure I have them, just in case IB's servers mess up and don't store them properly - and that's what happens occasionally.

I agree that I also may have a problem with Windows, though that is the only folder on my system that I have a problem opening. I understand that "Size on Disk" has something to do with cluster size. I presume it is set at 4kb which is the default for XP, but I haven't checked. If it is, this would not be the problem.

I'm also wondering if the .script files in that disexxxx folder is why Explorer has such a difficult time opening the folder.

<b>"Then, from the file menu in the main trading page that opens, you can choose to Load Settings File, navigate to the disejxftn folder in the old Jts folder"</b>

That's my problem. I cannot easily navigate to the file that I need to load. It takes 15-20 mins for Explorer to display the directory.

I'm going to try some of the other suggestions from JackR. I may just install linux again on another partition. I'm almost certain I would not have this problem with linux.
 
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