I downloaded DEVONThink Pro to try out. I’ve been a user of the personal edition for a while and like it. I’ve been using the pro edition during the trial period. I imported my old PE db in to the app. The time trial has expired and I wanted to go back to my old edition. I was quite surprised that it was gone from my Applications folder. No problem. I downloaded a new version and tried to open my old database. I can’t.
When I click on the database the new trial version opens. I quit that and try opening the database via Open With in the Finder, chosing the Personal Edition. All I get is a plist, which doesn’t help at all. How can I open my old database with the program I’ve already bought? I’m not trying to open the new databases I created with the Pro edition but the old one that I haven’t used for a month.
Your old DT PE database should be at this location: /YourUserName/Library/Appllication Support/ and is contained in the folder named DEVONthink. DT PE expects to find the folder at that location. If it is there, it will automatically be opened when you launch DT PE.
Perhaps you had converted your PE database to the DT Pro version, which is a package file. If so, you can convert the DT Pro package database back to the DT PE format very simply. In the Finder, select the DT Pro database that corresponds to your old DT PE database and press Command-I to display its Info panel. Rename the database as “DEVONthink” (without the quotes, and without the .dtBase suffix). Press Return and close the Info panel. You will now see it as a folder. Now move the folder to where DT PE expects to find it (see above) and launch DT PE. You should be back in business. Of course, if you had created elements such as Sheets & Records, they will not be usable in DT PE.
Don’t try to open a DT PE database by clicking on it, as that won’t work. Clicking will only open the folder, which won’t launch DT PE.
Unfortunately, that didn’t do anything. When I open PE there is no database. I’m pretty sure I followed your very clear instructions. Would the existence of the old files in the folder make any difference, ie. DEVONthink-1.database (from 1-10)?
Your picture shows two DEVONthink database folders, one inside the other. If you had launched DT PE when there was no DEVONthink database folder in /Application Support/, DT would have created a new, empty one. If you then dropped the converted DT Pro to DT PE database (earlier post in this thread) into Application Support, it might be inside the new, but empty database folder. One of the folders probably contains document content, the other probably doesn’t.
Check folder sizes in the Finder. What’s the size of the DEVONthink folder? What’s the size of the second DEVONthink folder, the ‘inside’ one? If the ‘inside’ folder is large enough to represent your original database size (and contains a Backup folder), try this: Close DT PE. Move the DEVONthink database folder out of Application Support, perhaps to the Desktop.
Open the folder. Copy (Option-drag) the second DEVONthink folder (the ‘inside’ one) to Application Support. (I’m assuming for the moment that the ‘inside’ folder contains documents and is the larger of the two and the ‘outside’ DEVONthink folder doesn’t. Perhaps I’m wrong and the ‘outside’ folder has documents. It should be easy to tell, based on file size comparison.)
Launch DT PE. Do you have document content, or not?
