comments get synchronized only on first indexing

DEVONthink Tips
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Hi i’m new to DT. What seems like a bug to me, might be by design. apologies in advance if this has been discussed before. Here is what happens:

I index my files, not import them. All Spotlight Comments show as expected. Then I edit or add a Spotlight Comment to a file using the Finder (out of habit). Then I return to the DT and click synchronize and nothing happens. The edited comments do not get synchronized. (it seemed at first that some would and some wouldn’t, but i can’t reproduce this now.)

Is this a bug? or is this the way it’s design. Since DT edits the Comments field of the actual file, shouldn’t I be able to synchronize it when this field gets edited outside DT after first indexing?

a second question: right now I can make changes on the file structure of a container that has been indexed and then synchronize those changes to DT, but not the other way around (make file structure changes–make groups–in DT and have them appear in the original container). Are there plans to change the way synchronization works? or is this the way it’s designed?

thanks for the info, i’m considering DT seriously. I want to use it for indexing, as a “organizing layer” for files that i want to associate in multiple ways. DT seems perfect for this.

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  1. Spotlight comments are captured into the Comment field of the document’s Info panel when it is first Import- or Index-captured to a database.

Changes to the Spotlight comment field of an Index-captured Finder file are not thereafter noticed by the database.

  1. For Index-captured files, the synchronization is one-way to the database, but not from the database.

Both behaviors are by design.

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Bill ,

What is the logic of not udating edited spotlight comments , even after sync ?

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Good question, Khalid.

I think it’s reasonable to anticipate that any metadata of external files imported to DT during indexing to be updated when synchronizing. It would be useful to at least know specifically when it isn’t; hopefully that can eventually be documented. The Help for Synchronize currently says:

It also reads changes made to the Finder or Spotlight comments of the to-be sync’ed files and applies them to their counterparts in the database.

That might seem to contradict what Bill said:

Changes to the Spotlight comment field of an Index-captured Finder file are not thereafter noticed by the database.

Btw, tiny typo near the end of the Help’s Import section: “… immediately reflexted …” should be “… immediately reflected …”.