Create on iPhone + sync always makes replicants?

If I create a text document on DTTG on the iPhone, inside some database, then sync it, it apparently has to become replicated into 2 items on DTP on the Mac - one just in the database, and a replicant in the sync group. This means I have to delete one of the replicants to avoid having two items every time I sync something created on the iPhone. Is this right?

A replicated item isn’t two items, but is two instances of the same item, with negligible overhead in your database.

The Synch group will contain replicants of the groups/documents that have been synced from the database. If you created a new document on the mobile device, then it should be shown both in the group to which it was added after sync back, and also in the database’s Synch group.

Actually it’s Sync, sans the ‘h’. :slight_smile:

But I still have to delete it twice.

I just tried it again. Made a text note on my iPhone, inside a database, then synced it to the Mac DTPO.

Found the synced note in the DTPO database. There it is, in red, because it’s a “replicant”. Deleted it. It’s in the trash. But there is the “replicant” in the database’s sync folder. So I have to delete that, too.

So, as I said, each time I create a note on the iPhone, I end up with two notes on DTPO on the Mac, and if I want to delete “it” I have to delete it twice.

I’m unclear as to which issue is of (greater) concern. The original post asks about deleting one instance of a replicant, while the latest post asks about deleting all instances of a replicant. If it is the latter, when you select a replicant and choose ‘Data>Move All Instances to Trash’ or type ‘Command-Option-D’, then all occurrences of the replicant will be deleted.

Really I was just trying to clarify the general issue of the (what I saw as the somewhat problematic) requirement of always having to delete two instances of a file every time you sync a document created on your iPhone.

OK, I understand, this is how it’s done. But I’m not sure it’s an ideal workflow. You make a note on your iPhone, and then after syncing you perhaps incorporate it into an existing document in your Mac DTPO (and you might do this frequently, since you can’t actually edit existing notes on your iPhone), but you always have to remember there’s another replicant left over somewhere that you also have to delete. I can imagine forgetting to do this, and having forgotten replicants littered around the database.

I guess this issue is a corollary of not being able to edit notes on your iPhone.

Unless I’m missing something blindingly obvious.

Here are a few specifics on the creation of documents in DEVONthink To Go that could be helpful.

  1. A replicant will only be created on the Mac side if the document was created in the top (root) level of the database in DEVONthink To Go. The top level in DEVONthink To Go is the Sync Group on the Mac side. Documents created in folders will not be replicated on the Mac side. So if I have this hierarchy on the Mac…

Sync

Folder A

and in DEVONthink To Go I create a new document at the top level and also create a new document in ‘Folder A’, only the document at the top level (Sync folder on the Mac) is replicated.

  1. The documents will not be littered around the database. All replicants created per item 1 above will be in the top (root) level of the database on the Mac. Thus documents at the top level on the iOS device (the ‘Sync’ group on the Mac) will also appear at the top level of the database on the Mac side.

You could always save the notes on the Mac in plain text, which can be edited on the iOS device.

So, if I create a document in a database on the iPhone, after syncing, it will create a replicant (“loose” in the database root), unless it’s created inside a folder in the iPhone’s database. But, if I just create it in the root database on the iPhone, it will create a replicant in the Mac DTPO database root, as well as the file in the Mac DTPO “sync” group. This I call “littering”.

Why does creating a note outside of the root folder in a database on the iPhone have to create a replicant in the Mac DTPO database root? Can’t it just live in the database’s “sync” folder until I decide what to do with it?

The Sync group is not my database. It is a special kind of group that is used to designate items shared between my Mac database and my mobile device database.

If I create a new document on the mobile device and then Sync back to the Mac, that new item will be added to the Mac database. Of course, it will also be within the Sync group as well, so long as I leave it there.

This is NOT “littering”. One instance of the new document has been added to my Mac database after Sync, and the other instance is contained in the Sync group. That’s the intended result of a successful Sync operation.

If you created that new document at the top level of the database on the mobile device, it is unclassified – not assigned to a group. Likewise, after Sync that new document has been added to the top level of the Mac database and so is unclassified, awaiting filing into your organizational structure. Indeed, an organizational purist would consider all documents placed at the top level to be litter. :slight_smile:

I’ll confess that I’m not an organizational purist. My databases often do have documents at the top level, perhaps patiently awaiting classification when I get around to it (if ever). But those documents are truly in my database and can be immediately identified as “to be classified”. If they had only been sent to the Sync group (which might contain hundreds or thousands of other documents), it could be difficult to identify them as new content.