You said you have Locations 1 and 2, that you want to be able to make changes in Location 1 and see them cascade to Location 2, but not vice-versa. In, e.g., 2 macs.
So you want uni-directional syncing capabilities. But you also mention changes in Location 2. I think you are aware that this means having roles, permissions and conflict management, right?
DEVONthink was not built for this, and I doubt it that any of the thousands of users ever need anything like that - this is not a collaborative design, a relational database, or a software development app.
So if these are very hard requirements for you, DEVONthink is not for you, and I am very sure you will not find any other platform for that. At least one you can afford without being a Fortune 500 company.
If the case is you donât want a 2nd user to make changes, just have them commit to not making changes - still, if one major change happens by accident, it can potentially be reversed. Hence doing backups.
If the case IS you want a 2nd user to be able to make independent changes, then, well, what I said above.
If the user in Location 2 is allowed to make changes while also getting updates from Location 1, it starts to look like the kind of thing software version control tools do. Completely legitimate use case, but not what DT is designed for.
(And to your point about costs, Git is free. Software is largely either plain text or encapsulated binaries, though. Not the kind of freeform data that DT manages so well.)
Well, he said he didnât want changes made in Location 2 to appear in Location 1. That is not the same as âuser in Location 2 is allowed to make changes while also getting updates from Location 1â
Now weâre talking branches, etc, right?
About Git - of course, free!
And of course, DT being freeform (in my old days at Informatica, weâd call it âunstructuredâ I guess), good luck even thinking of a platform including roles, permissions, versioning, conflickt management, locks, etc, etc.
One-way sync would be a cool feature, but I donât know where someone would get the idea itâs built in.
if you want to keep a backup of a database up to date one-way, SyncThing, rsync, cp, Keyboard Maestro on a schedule could all do it. (Just a userâs opinion, not officially supported etc.)
That is impossible. If Location 2 changes, it will no longer be an EXACT REPLICA of Location 1.
DEVONthink advertises âsynchronisingâ - look up what that means.
By the way - this is possibly the most helpful forum filled with uniformly sound advice, anywhere. The DEVONthink team are always willing to assist, and responsive to new ideas. Browse this forum and see the many years of extraordinary supportâŚ
@BLUEFROG - you demonstrate commendable patience as always.âŚ.
Clients, patients and others asking for advice in complex pro matters often (some say always) ask not what they really want, and want not what they really need. This is normal. And any professional service agent knows that. So, @BLUEFROG IS professional asking the questions on context to better assist you.
Business wisdom says that customer is always right, but to the limits of the bill paid. I think you are pretty much out of the limits behaving like you do. Who are you to talk here like this?!
For what itâs worth (Iâd read the other thread from Lear too), I do just manually do archive backups of my databases on to an external drive (when I feel like it, but itâs supposed to be once a week). Thatâs in addition to Time Machine (on a different external drive), but Time Machine serves as the âsafetyâ, I consider my manual backups the ârealâ backups of my databases. Manual backups work fine if you understand why youâve made that decision.
I do exactly thatâtake archive zipsâwith the same priority of âwhen i think of itâ every so often. Send to a local drive that then gets backed up like everything else with 3-2-1 regime.
Letâs start out with your master database in location 1, and a completely identical copy in location 2. Whenever changes happen in location 1, you would like them replicated to location 2. However, if a user makes changes in location 2, you donât want them replicated back to location 1.
Am I correct in your requirements?
If I am, what do you envision happens in the following cases:
The file âtest1.pdfâ is added to location 1 and replicated to location 2, and later deleted only from location 2. Is it supposed to stay deleted from that point on as other changes are made to location 1 and replicated to location 2?
What happens if a user in location 2 edits âtest1.pdfâ? Do the edits stay in location 2 forever without being replicated back to location 1?
What happens if a user adds a new file âtest2.pdfâ to location 2 without being replicated back to location 1, and at some point later a completely different âtest2.pdfâ is added to location 1? Which version of âtest2.pdfâ ends up in location 2?
Itâs issues like this that need to be specified before any sort of solution can be suggested.
Your one-way sync sounds like a backup. Use FileâExportâDatabase Archive.
That will create a zip file anywhere you want. Unzip the file and thereâs a copy of your original database.
Thatâs scriptable, so you could automate creating the archive and unzipping it. Iâd do it, but Iâm slow with Applescript.
I agree that some answers here can seem abrupt. Stereotypes are cruel, but Iâve wondered if there isnât an unintended harshness in German to English communication.
Before everyone gets mad at me for saying that, Iâm half German and happy to say so. If that seems harsh, maybe Iâm just a pot seeing a kettle in the mirror. Itâs OK, Iâve said more embarrassing things.
Devonthink is a great resource. Customer support is fantastic.
Good luck with your workflow. I donât see any reason you canât get what you want.
Youâre clearly frustrated, but taking it out on the people trying to help you isnât acceptable. This community runs on mutual respect, and the volunteers here owe you neither their time nor their patience.
Right now, the only shocking behavior in this thread is coming from you. If you want useful answers, drop the attitude, provide clear information, and engage like someone who actually wants a solution.
Otherwise, youâre just making noise and slowing down the people who are here to help.
It looks as if a solution is sought to a simple problem and that solution is to be chosen to be complex.
As others have said, the simplest solution would be the best - backup your database file from place 1 to place 2. How you do this is pretty immaterial - you can get the same result from different workflows. I use Chronosync - it will make a backup from my SD drive and send it to my Drobo (I know this is now obsolete, but it currently works) and will therefore overwrite that database copy on the Drobo. Hence only changes on place 1 will be saved on the backup on location 2. Backblaze will also backup my SD database - not a synchronisation as we have been warned about many times on this forum
