1.9 hangs when opening a 1.8 database

[fishmonkey]

I had problems opening my 1.8 database in 1.9.

It would hang on the splashscreen with the initialization meter 1/2 done. It would peg the processor at 100%, and in the activity monitor the process would be labeled as ‘hung’.

I tried deleting the prefs file and tried deleting the DT folder, starting 1.9 and then pasting my current database in, and it hung when restarting at the same point and maxed out the processor again.

The way I got around it was to export my database to a folder on my desktop via 1.8. Then open 1.9 with an empty database and import the files from the database folder.

This got me up and running, albeit with some broken links.

I did email tech support, and this is the response I got, which may help someone out with a similiar problem:

Maybe deleting the preferences (com.devon-technologies.think.plist)
will fix the problem. Another possibility is that DT 1.9 creates an
automatic backup on startup and this might need some time depending on
the size of the database (however, this scenario is unlikely because
version 1.9 creates only weekly backups by default).

But if it’s definitely not possible to open the database, could you
stuff/zip the DEVONthink folder and send us the archive either via mail
or upload it to our FTP server
(ftp://ftp.devon-technologies.com/incoming)? Then we could check over
here if it’s a database issue or a bug of v1.9 and try to fix this as
soon as possible.

[fishmonkey]

Here’s some follow-up:

I sent Christian a copy of my database and after a short examination he came to the following conclusion:

it’s actually “only” a performance leak

(very slow initialization) if the database hasn’t been optimized for
some time but version 1.9.1 will fix this (and opens the old database
in less than a second over here - around 100 times faster

So there you have it.

[cgrunenberg]

V1.9a already includes this fix too.