Bonjour location offline

In this day and age it is a rare device that cannot detect more than one WiFi network at any one time. But the first thing I checked—and have continued to check—is that both my devices in question are on the same network (my default home network).

Which port do you use for incoming connections on the Mac? See Preferences > Sync > Bonjour Options.

56806

As per the instructions, I let the app make the selection. I didn’t set it myself

Did you enable Bonjour in DEVONthink To Go as well? If so, disable it, then relaunch DEVONthink and DEVONthink To Go.

That’s the problem BLUEFROG. I can’t enable Bonjour in DEVONthink To Go! As I wrote in my original post:

I have shut down and reopened both apps on both devices. I have shut down and rebooted both devices. And the router. There is no firewall activated. And both devices are on the same network.

From scratch, here’s what I’ve done:

  1. I click on the Bonjour Options… button in DT3. In the resulting dialogue I check ‘Enable incoming connections’ and ‘Open databases automatically’. I leave the Port field empty (though the app subsequently enters the port as 56806. I enter a Password. (Is this what I’m doing wrong? Should this be a specific password—but in which case, to what?)

  2. In DTTG Settings on my phone, in the SYNC section, I try and set up a new location. (Dropbox is already set up as one location). In the Locations dialogue I can see the network icon, and the name of my account and computer, and the slider is set to on, but the icon and name remain greyed out, with the the description 'Local Network (Offline)"

  3. Back to SYNC settings, the Bonjour section, this shows as ‘Off’. If I click on the right arrow to see the Bonjour options, I have the Enable incoming connections slide set to off (as instructed). I leave the port number empty (though I have also tried manually entering the same number as DT3 provides on my Mac, 56806). I enter the same password as I used in DT3.

In a way I hope I’m doing something wrong—then it would explain why I can’t get a Bonjour connection. But I can’t begin to imagine what.

Do not enable Bonjour in DEVONthink To Go unless you are intending to serve its own databases. This is possible, but unusual when a Mac is involved as the Mac generally acts as the server.

Also, you should not re-use a Port number. This is akin to having two people with the same address of telephone number. Again, disable Bonjour in DEVONthink To Go on either device if the Mac is supposed to act as the Bonjour server.

Here are the simple instructions for setting up a Bonjour sync between Mac and mobile…

On the Mac…

In DEVONthink…

  1. Preferences > Sync > Bonjour Options
    • Check Enable Incoming Connections.
    • Leave the Port blank unless you have a known port to assign.
    • Enter a mandatory Password. You will use this when connecting on the other devices.
  2. Leave DEVONthink running.
On mobile…

In DEVONthink To Go…

  1. Go into Settings > Sync: Locations
  2. You should see a sync location for the Mac. Click the green plus button next to it.
  3. Set the options per your choice and touch Save.
  4. Enter the password you entered on the Mac.
  5. When it has connected, touch the sync location to show the databases list and flip the switch next to databases you want to import.

And just to clarify… Bonjour can be used to Sync between devices, IF:

  1. The devices are on the same network
  2. The network is private or one that allows Bonjour connections or non-standard ports. (Public and corporate WiFi sometimes disallow these.)
  3. Your firewall or an application like Little Snitch is Off or has exceptions added for DEVONthink’s traffic.
  4. Both devices are On and running DEVONthink / DEVONthink To Go 2 (and DTTG2 must be active, regardless of the Sync method).
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Finally! I found the problem. I hadn’t tried to delete the existing Bonjour location in DTTG. I did that, then created a new location, as you describe. And it worked!

But now I have another issue: when I slide the switch to select the database I want to sync I get a warning: “This database has not been downloaded completely to this device. Uploading it to a new sync location will cause problems because some items will be missing.”

Surely if the database is still downloading from another sync location (Dropbox) it will eventually upload all the items to the new sync location as they are downloaded from Dropbox?

I wish I could get my head round this whole syncing business!

Thanks for all your help

I haven’t been able to get anything expect the global in box with my iPhone, iPad and MacBook. I decided to not use bonjour since I’m not as familiar with it vs iCloud But since iCloud isn’t working maybe I should try it. The question is do I need to be on the same WiFi for bonjour? The advantage of iCloud I thought is being anywhere to have everything in synch…

Ughhh just bought DEVONthink go, DEVONthink pro, Devonagent, and DEVONSphere but not feeling so good about my purchase yet with this non synch issue!!!

Yes, you need to be on the same network for Bonjour to work, just as I noted above.

Since you are connecting to a location that contains the contents, i.e., the Mac, you can press Proceed.

Ok, great. Thanks for your help. Can’t help think that a more user-friendly interface and/or instructions would have helped avoid this whole episode. I’m not exactly a computer novice, but the procedure and language managed to defeat me.

and/or instructions

You mean outside the instructions I gave you and this from Help > Documentation > In & Out > Sync ?

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Your instructions were helpful, and helped me arrive at the solution.

But the first thing you stated was:

Do not enable Bonjour in DEVONthink To Go

Here’s what the help documentation says, after explaining about enabling Bonjour on the Mac:

The Mac with Bonjour enabled should now be visible as a sync location to other devices on your local network. On the other devices, enable it, enter the password, and you can import databases or sync existing databases directly with it.

“On the other devices, enable it…” seems to my small brain to be exactly the opposite of what you, correctly, stated. If you want to set up a Bonjour sync to my mind it seems completely unintuitive to see an item under SYNC in the settings that says, and indeed apparently should say “OFF”.

I think it’s a classic case of people who are really familiar with an interface or a procedure not fully understanding what is going through the mind of an ignorant user—even one that is half intelligent

Anyway, thanks again

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it equals the Mac with Bonjour enabled.

So, err—the help instructions say “On the other devices, enable the Mac with Bonjour enabled”? I wouldn’t understand that if my life depended on it.

I don’t think we’re getting anywhere really. If you insist that the instructions are clear, there’s nothing much I can add I’m afraid.

Again, thanks for your help

No, just noting what the pronoun meant in this context. I will look at the verbiage. Cheers!

I know that this is an old post … however … I have noticed the same issue. After going through all of the trouble shooting steps below with no luck I discovered a possible reason.

Eureka Moment:

I have DTTG installed on both my iPhone and my iPad. I was continually being frustrated by the offline issue on both devices … until I discovered that if the other device was syncing at the time DT would appear offline on the device I was looking at (that is it will only sync locally using one device at a time).

Yes one at a time but the one waiting will be patient.

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@rmschne is correct. Bonjour only allows one active connection at a time. Other devices queue up.

Hi Jim, question on this one: I have saved a bunch of things on DDTG on my iPad, but it’s not syncing to my Mac.

I’m currently using iCloud CloudKit (trying to switch to Bonjour), but I’m getting the a similar error message as described in this thread. It reads: “This database has not been downloaded completely to this device. Uploading it to a new sync location could cause problems if you haven’t uploaded it fully to the sync store already from another device."

Since to Mac location never had the contents of the files uploaded to DTTG from my iPad, I’m hesitating to click “Proceed Anyway” because I don’t want to lose all of the files from the iPad.

Any recommendations here?