Connect folder with devonthink

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hello,
i use now Devonthink since half a year.
But ne thing I don’t get really realized is that folders are connected with Devonthink so that the files I push in this folder on Devonthink are also directly in this folder on my harddrive.
Can someone explain me how I get this work?

Cheers

2

Files added to indexed groups do not automatically get sent to the folder in the Finder (and yes, this is by design). Right-click the file(s) or group and choose Move to External Folder to move files to the folder in the Finder.

3

Hi,
thanks for your reply.
Okay and where is now the work simplification for my project?
It could be that I don’t have understand something but something like this makes the whole program sensless if I can’t use my files outside of Devonthink without hassle.

And comments like its not a bug its a function, sorry this is only a excuse for bad accessibility.

Also I have now a filesystem next to my OS in a seperate database and nothin is connected. Is that right?

4

Many people use DEVONthink without indexing. It is an opt-in process. Some may opt to use indexing. Some may not. Some may choose to have a hybrid of both.

It’s not “bad accessibility”. It’s a core function of the application to create portable, self-contained databases.

No, that is not correct. There is not a separate filesystem. There is a proprietary directory structure within a package file as the core of the database.

5

Speaking as a user, this model makes sense to me.

For any folder, you have a choice to make - either to include the folder inside the DT database, or to index it from DT. For folders that are for active work, I always index. The advantages are:

  • I do not have to maintain two folder structures (in Finder and DT)
  • I do not have to think about the effect of changing folder contents - I add/change/remove items in the Finder folder, and the DT index automatically reflects the change.
  • If I have the Finder folder in a cloud-connected location (such as Dropbox or iCloud Drive, then the index continues to work on any IOS devices on which I have DEVONThink To Go (DTTG)

This allows me a simple workflow in which i can access a document from the Finder or from DT without worrying about integrity fo my files and folders.

The two exceptions to indexing - where I copy files into the database - is when I am archiving closed work exercises (I copy all the folders into an archive database) or for specific items I want for reference (contract documents, legal documents and so on).

I hope that helps

6

@ThatGuy: Thanks for the comments on your considerations. It certainly shows what I preach often: Think about these things in context of your needs and situation. You have shown logical thoughts about the choices you made.

One note:

I’m not sure of the wording here, but DTTG does not support indexed files like DEVONthink does. If you index a Dropbox folder on macOS into DEVONthink, the files in that group in DTTG will not be pointing to an external location. They will be imported files in DTTG.