Delete a smart group w/out deleting contents

DEVONthink Tips
1

Quickie:

I can’t seem to figure out how to get rid of a smart group WITHOUT also deleting the contents in the smart search.

Thanks!

2

Smart Groups are saved searches – this means they have no content – there is nothing inside them. If you delete a Smart Group you will only delete the saved search. You will not be deleting any documents.

3

Korm,

here’s what I appreciate about your replies…this one was a silly one. And you answered so nicely, too nicely!

I realize that there were other reasons why it seemed that I was missing data. I was moving somethings around before I deleted the smart group.

BTW, would love to get your feedback on the usage scenario question I had.

Thanks!

4

So even though all of the documents from the smart group show up in the trash when I delete a smart group - the documents really won’t get deleted?

5

If you move a smart group to trash, the “smart” bit of it remains active; so you will still see a disclosure triangle to the left of the name of the smart group. If that is pointing down, then the content of the smart group will be disclosed - i.e. you will see everything which fulfils the conditions of the smart group. If, however, you select one of those files and ⇧⌘i you will see that its location is not “trash” but rather wherever the document resides in your database (that’s as opposed to the smart group itself, the location of which will be listed as trash). As such, emptying the trash does not delete any of the files listed in the smart group (they are not contained in the smart group).

If that is not the case (i.e. the location of the file is trash), then that would be unexpected behaviour.

(I have just tested this, and the behaviour was correct, and as expected and described in the first paragraph of my response.)

6

That is correct. The documents really will not get deleted in the case you described.