# Confused on the correct way to backup all my devonthink data, advice appreciate :)

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255>\
**Category:** DEVONthink\
**Created:** [January 22, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255 "2020-01-22T17:08:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![kledbetter57](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/edb3f5/32.png) [@kledbetter57](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/kledbetter57)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/21 "2020-01-27T14:43:24Z")

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BackBlaze.

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**Author:** ![RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/robh/32/7787_2.png) [@RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/RobH)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/22 "2020-01-27T18:39:15Z")

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Me too, almost exactly, except I use SuperDuper! instead of CCC. However, I deem this to be not enough backup, so I also use ARQ to make copies to an Amazon S3 bucket, and I use the Export Db script to make a zip file and have that zip file copied to an external drive; in addition to occasionally exporting my data onto flash drives.

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**Author:** ![RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/robh/32/7787_2.png) [@RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/RobH)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/23 "2020-01-27T18:41:23Z")

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I’m still having trouble getting the export script to run from a DT3 reminder.

 ![Screen Shot 2020-01-27 at 11.39.02](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/2X/2/2b747a521fb9ea550438705dd5700dcb7f451fc6.png)

The embedded script only has “Open Document” and I can’t do anything other than select that.

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/24 "2020-01-27T20:31:08Z")

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Reminder script are located in the `~/Library/Application Scripts/com.devon-technologies.think3/Reminders` directory.

See **Help \> Documentation \> Automation \> Reminder Scripts** , bearing in mind there is no backup script there at this time.

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**Author:** ![RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/robh/32/7787_2.png) [@RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/RobH)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/25 "2020-01-27T22:43:50Z")

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Okay, I understand now. You have to put a script in that location before it’s available to the reminders.

Okay, so, I copied the Daily Backup Archive script to the Reminders folder, restarted DT3, and was able to find it for use in a reminder. I set it up and it ran (got the notification), but it created no backup file in Backups.

Will that script work like this or does it need to be modified?

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/26 "2020-01-27T23:16:13Z")

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As noted in the documentation I referred to, you need to use the `on performReminder` handler.

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/2X/c/c51d7039fb5de344d33477f70410cfeb55627269.jpeg)

What are you intending to set the Reminder on?

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**Author:** ![MaSp](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/masp/32/9411_2.png) [@MaSp](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/MaSp)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 6:29am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/27 "2020-01-28T06:29:31Z")

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To just give another option: I make monthly backups by…

- saving the the database-file to a .dmg
- copying that .dmg to a external drive
- uploading that .dmg to SpiderOak

So than I both have a backup on an external drive (locked in my safe) and a downloadable .dmg via SpiderOak. It’s a low tech way of saving backups, but it works fine.

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**Author:** ![RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/robh/32/7787_2.png) [@RobH](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/RobH)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/28 "2020-01-28T19:58:03Z")

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I want to trigger the Daily backup archive.scpt to run from a DT3 reminder.

I don’t do AppleScript, so looking in the document section called “Terminology” would not have been the place I’d look for info on setting up a reminder script.

In the documentation example, the script begins with `on performReminder(theRecord)` but would that be what I’d want here, as the script should run on the database. Again, no experience with AppleScript.

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**Author:** ![mksBelper](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/mksbelper/32/20324_2.png) [@mksBelper](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/mksBelper)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/29 "2021-05-04T21:30:55Z")

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At the risk of veering slightly off topic, for which my apologies, would forum members recommend Are over BackBlaze? TIA!

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**Author:** ![chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrk)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 10:03pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/30 "2021-05-04T22:03:23Z")

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I used both Backblaze Personal and Arq in the past, but stopped using Backblaze recently.

They were always very political in what they didn’t back up (Finder tags…), but given their low pricing I kept using the product in addition to Arq (I would never have been comfortable with Backblaze as my main remote backup). Due to missteps stacking up over the last 12 months or so, I canceled my subscription.

The main issues bothering me are related to security & software quality and their politcal stance against backing up metadata. You can find their developers on Reddit saying noone should use tags for instance and just name files differently and use strict folder structures.

Some links…

> My other concern is that Backblaze doesn’t actually back up everything. It fails all but one of the Backup Bouncer tests, **discarding file permissions, symlinks, Finder flags and locks, creation dates (despite claims), modification date (timezone-shifted), extended attributes (which include Finder tags and the “where from” URL), and Finder comments**. ([Source](https://mjtsai.com/blog/2014/05/22/what-backblaze-doesnt-back-up/))

> **[BackBlaze Mistakenly Shared Backup Meta Data with Facebook](https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/backblaze-shared-meta-data-with-facebook/)**
>
> Backblaze Was Submitting Names and Size of files belonging to their users to Facebook.

 ![backblaze](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/4/9/498907cd2941b5d8e650d863b25a841b25eed21e.png)  
([Source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25899802))

[https://twitter.com/zetafleet/status/1304664097989054464](https://twitter.com/zetafleet/status/1304664097989054464)

[https://twitter.com/backblaze/status/1362108305934442496](https://twitter.com/backblaze/status/1362108305934442496)

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**Author:** ![mksBelper](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/mksbelper/32/20324_2.png) [@mksBelper](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/mksBelper)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/31 "2021-05-04T22:15:50Z")

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Thanks, Chris - that’s extremely helpful!

I think I know what I have to do now 🙂 !

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**Author:** ![mals](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mals](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/mals)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/32 "2022-01-27T16:36:28Z")

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> [@eboehnisch](#):
>
> I must admit that I’m very simple here: I backup my whole Documents folder via Arq to S3 and to a local Synology.

did you consider, or has anybody else used Chronosync for this? Is Chronosync equally effective as Arq? I suppose depends on whether it uses a snapshot-style backup and Chronosync does have an option in its backup options and I have enabled that option. From Chronosync options description:

> Freeze file system - If snapshots are supported and this option is turned ON, a snapshot of your file system will be taken before running the task and then used as your source target.

While I did purchase Arq, and have used it, I would rather not have the Arq files at the other end.

Thank you.

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/33 "2022-01-27T17:07:10Z")

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This is an old post but perhaps a word of warning…

> [@Chronosync backup using "Dissect packages"](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/chronosync-backup-using-dissect-packages/12446/6):
>
> I have tried using ChronoSync to keep the DT databases on two different computers in sync. The key ChronoSync settings I used are: Synchronize (as opposed to making one database the master and the other the slave) Dissect packages Automatically resolve conflicts by using the latest timestamp Net result: Complete disaster! The databases on both machines became corrupted beyond what “verify & repair” within DEVONthink could correct. Also, the most trivial changes were not synchronized properly.…

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**Author:** ![mals](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mals](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/mals)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/34 "2022-01-27T19:21:13Z")

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> [@BLUEFROG](#):
>
> This is an old post but perhaps a word of warning…

Thank you. That makes sense. However, I am only trying to backup to a network drive. So the question for me is if Arq can work then shouldn’t Chronosync also?

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**Author:** ![shiiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@shiiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shiiko)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/35 "2022-01-27T23:23:14Z")

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A bit of programming help. I have been able to set the Daily backup script to write to a Dropbox folder and to an external hard drive separately. I would like to do it simultaneously but I must be missing something simple to make both happen (like an AND command between, I guess).

**set** this\_archive **to** “~/Dropbox/MyAppsWorkFile/DevonDailyBackup2022/” & this\_name & " " & this\_date & “.dtBase2.zip”

**set** this\_archive **to** “Volumes/Store/Backup DEVON/DevonDailyBackup2022/” & this\_name & " " & this\_date & “.dtBase2.zip”

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

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**Author:** ![chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/chrillek/32/29340_2.png) [@chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrillek)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 6:42am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/36 "2022-01-28T06:42:29Z")

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You are setting the same variable twice in this code. I guess that you might want to perform the act of archiving first before changing the variable’s name.

**Edit** : I also suspect that there’s a typo in the second `set`: It probably should be “/Volumes…” with a leading slash.

After having a look at the script itself: If you want to save to two different locations, you might want to refactor the part starting from the `set timeout` line until the end of the save proper into its own subroutine (that might be called a `handler` in AppleScript, but I’m not sure). Pass in the target name (`this_archive`) as a parameter and call it twice: once after the first `set this_archive`, once after the second.

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**Author:** ![shiiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@shiiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shiiko)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/37 "2022-01-28T22:24:19Z")

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thank you @chrillek Yes, the variable is set twice because I would like to make the same backup to two locations. The second set works without the “/”. Don’t know what is to “refactor” but yes, having a timeout between them seems logical. I did not understand anything of what you mean from here: " _until the end of the save proper into its own subroutine (that might be called a `handler` in AppleScript, but I’m not sure). Pass in the target name (`this_archive` ) as a parameter and call it twice: once after the first `set this_archive` , once after the second._"

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**Author:** ![svsmailus](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/svsmailus/32/4839_2.png) [@svsmailus](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/svsmailus)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 9:52am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/38 "2022-06-25T09:52:46Z")

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I have recently subscribed to Arq Premium. I’ve set it up to only back up from a folder, where I intend to place all items I want to backup.

Am I ok to simply store my DEVONthink databases in that folder or do I need to do something else?

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**Author:** ![chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/chrillek/32/29340_2.png) [@chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrillek)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 10:08am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/39 "2022-06-25T10:08:11Z")

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That should be sufficient. But you should also have a Timemachine or other backup strategy in place to safe _all_ your data.

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**Author:** ![svsmailus](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/svsmailus/32/4839_2.png) [@svsmailus](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/svsmailus)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 10:10am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/confused-on-the-correct-way-to-backup-all-my-devonthink-data-advice-appreciate/53255/40 "2022-06-25T10:10:07Z")

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I already ready run a CCC to external disk. This is essentially for my offsite backup. I was just wondering if DT database worked ok in a folder backed up by Arq.

I’m assuming that I can open and work from the DT database from the Arq folder?

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