Hi all,
I am having trouble emptying my global trash folder. After dumping all my unwanted news and bookmarks in the trash can (there are some 24,000 items), each time I try to empty it Devonthink Pro quits unexpectedly.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Steve
That’s a large number of items to move in a single operation.
There are several possible causes of your problem. I’ll start with the easiest ‘fixes’, although my guess is that it’s the last one below.
The computer has ‘cobwebs’ in memory and/or a stuck cache. First, click on the name of the DEVONthink application in the menubar. Then restart the computer. Did the problem go away?
The operating system has become unstable and the result is flaky behavior. Running a suite of OS X maintenance routines using a utility such as C0cktail or OnyX may correct stability problems. (I highly recommend doing this as routine preventive maintenance every two or three weeks, or whenever flaky behavior is observed - whether or not that results in solving this particular problem.) But make certain that the version of the utility is correct for the OS X version on your computer. (I won’t go into OS X stability problems that result from installing poorly written hacks on the computer. Please avoid that!)
The Trash may contain a ‘strange’ or corrupted file that results in a crash when an action is taken on it. The best approach would be to act on a limited number of files at a time, as below.
The memory requirements to move a large block of files to the System Trash, in conjunction with the memory requirements of the open database(s), may have exceeded the maximum addressable memory space available to DEVONthink. The best approach would be to move a series of smaller blocks of files at a time, to reduce memory requirements.
4a) If you have several databases open, each of which has placed files into the Global Trash, try closing all but one database at a time, invoking ‘Empy Trash’ to reduce the size of the block of files moved to the System Trash.
4b) Or create a new, empty database. Select and move a relatively small number of files from DEVONthink’s database Trash until they have all been moved to the new database. Then, in the Finder, move that database to the System Trash and empty it.
Hi there,
I have the same trouble with a too big trash DB and after applying point 2-4b there is hope that it might be resolved. But it takes hours to move always max 8-10 files into the provisory DB, deleting them, emptying the trash bin there, going back to the old trash bin…
How about 1.) ? Clicking on DTP’s name on the menü-bar before restart the mac …
Does this really start a different procedure compared to just a normal new start?
… meanwhile I’m going back shoveling more of the trash files into the other DB…