Can’t find databases after crash

Hello everybody,

I was using the Devonthink 3 program on my Macbook M1 14 inch, as well as on my Iphone. Ca. one hour ago the program on my Macbook has crushed, didn´t respond to any command and I had to restart it. After that, I have started the program once again and all data went lost.

I tryed to start it more times and it didn´t work. I have also checked the last protocol which says that everything was successfull.

Remark: the data on my Iphone is still there (Devnothink to go) and at least it didn´t go lost.

Does anyone have any idea how this happened? I have already created a ticket. This is in my opinion unacceptable for a product I payed for.

I would appreciate any advice.

Best regards,
Milos

Why, because you expected that spending money changes the way computers work? A crash is the classic point in time at which a database can be damaged. DEVONthink actually creates internal backups of the database structure for trouble shooting if that actually does happen. However, from your description I don’t yet know what has happened - more details are required.

So, to be more helpful: Please can you explain what you mean by “all data is lost”? What actually happens when you try to open the/a database?

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No, not because of that but because of the fact that the payed product needs to be 100% reliable. Putting money aside, I would be ready to pay even more for getting a reliable product but not for this kind of it.

When I say all data lost, I mean precisely that. Attached is a screenshots you can see on what precisely I mean. There were five databases there and now none of it is shown. My favorites are grayed out, hence not approachable. I have also described what happened. And yes, one more thing: there was no synchro process running or similar. The data has already been synchronised and everything was running fine until this point of time.

Perhaps time to go your backup files. If DEVONthink files gone, certainly many other files missing due to your crash.

Not really, I inspected it and everything is there on my hard drive. Additionally, almost all of my files are stored in Devonthink, everything has been migrated. This is the reason I am so unhappy with the service offered now…really…

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Restore your DEVONthink database(s), then.

Milos, your screenshot does not show that the data is gone. Lets start by going to the Finder location where your databases are usually stored (by default that will be yourusername/Databases). Can you see the databases here? What are the file endings of those databases?

There is no such thing. Quite apart from the fact that we haven’t even established that DEVONthink has caused any trouble at this point. However, task in hand: let’s get you back up and working.

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According to the screenshot the databases were not yet opened (and that’s actually an intended step after the crash to avoid that a damaged database could cause endless crash cycles).

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I’m currently assuming it will be possible to open the databases from Finder; possibly after “resetting” the file extension (if the OP is using encrypted databases). I’ve never seen anybody here report the whole database lost following a DT crash, so it seems unlikely here, too. In fact, I can’t even come up with a mechanism likely to cause a total loss on crashing, although that could be technical ignorance on my side. Let’s wait for Milos to come back and report what’s in Finder and hope for the best :slight_smile:

@Milos_1989 you just have to open the databases. Double click them in Finder or use Script: Open or close databases.

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That’s assuming they are not encrypted, in which case the automatic change to the file extension on opening will not have been reversed (so the file extension will currently be sparseimgae rather than dtsparse, and will need reverting).

Here is the screenshot from my iPhone. Here you can see that my databases went lost.

Again: no, that screenshot does not show that databases have been lost. Again, I suggest you go to the Finder location where your databases are stored on your Mac and report back what you see there.

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Note: This post is offtopic

I read something about that … Does this mean the way the linked „Open or close databases“ script tries to open sparseimgae won’t work? I didn’t test it as I never use encrypted databases.

I receive following mistake when I try to do that: ,Die Datenbank, die Sie versuchen zu öffnen, scheint entweder von einer anderen Kopie von DEVONthink 3 verwendet zu werden oder sie wurde nicht ordnungsgemäß geschlossen. Wählen Sie ‘Fortfahren’ um die Datenbank dennoch zu öffnen, wenn Sie sich sicher sind, dass sie nicht von einer anderen Kopie von DEVONthink 3 verwendet wird.´´

It says that the database I am trying to open is being already used or that it wasn´t properly closed. I can choose if I want to continue with it or not.

Now I am confused. Which copy could be used since there are no databases in my Devonthink 3?

That’s fine - select “Fortfahren”; the database was not closed properly when DT crashed, and is marked internally as open. When you select to continue, DT will perform a validation of the database.

Aufgrund des Absturzes ist das der Fall, Fortfahren sollte genügen.

How can i proove to you that my databases have been lost? I think you can trust me on that, since I know what I have on my Macboo and since I have synchronized all of them using iCloud Kit synchronizing process. Of course that I can´t provide you with any evidence before/ after since the databases went lost :slight_smile: I mean, I know that you are defending the app and it is fine for me, but sometimes you need to hear to users opinion…

Ok, perfekt. Danke dir. Die sind jetzt wieder aufgetaucht.

You may have read about it here a while back.

DEVONtech seem to have built in some magic since the days; I just force quit DT with an encrypted test database open, and it was automatically renamed .dtsparse when I next opened DT. A such, I cannot simulate a situation in which the database is left open and still uses the file extension sparseimage next time the script is run.

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