https://www.pachadata.com/en/tags/shrink/Recent content in Shrink on Rudi BruchezHugoenFri, 28 Aug 2026 16:31:38 +0200https://www.pachadata.com/en/docs/howtos/database-maintenance/shrink-database-file/Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.pachadata.com/en/docs/howtos/database-maintenance/shrink-database-file/<div class="alert alert-success" role="alert"><div class="h4 alert-heading" role="heading">TL;DR</div> <p>A shrink is a <strong>manual, one-off</strong> operation, never automated and never scheduled. Always use <code>DBCC SHRINKFILE</code> on a specific file, never <code>DBCC SHRINKDATABASE</code>. On large files, shrink in small increments rather than in one go. The operation never corrupts the database: SQL Server is dependable here.</p> </div> <h2 id="when-should-you-shrink">When should you shrink?</h2> <p>Shrinking is discouraged as a general rule. It is an expensive operation that <strong>fragments indexes heavily</strong>. <a href="https://www.sqlskills.com/about/paul-s-randal/">Paul Randal</a>, who wrote the SHRINK command in SQL Server 2005, explains it in detail: <a href="https://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/why-you-should-not-shrink-your-data-files/">Why you should not shrink your data files</a>.</p>