Delete and Start Over?

How can I blow away an existing installation and have the software with a fresh start? What are the steps to starting over?

Thx so much!

Doug

Welcome @drsdayton

Why are you trying to do this?

I have somehow corrupted multiple databases. Documents are missing and don’t match the counts. I want to clean it up…and don’t have a lot to lose yet.

I’d like to understand if uninstall (via Clean My Mac x, for example) will effectively start me over, or if vestiges may remain that might cause problems on a re-install???

Any experience appreciated…

Thank you!

It should be sufficient to delete the databases from within DT. Why would you re-install the software?
Disclaimer: I do generally not believe in black magic like that promised by Clean My Mac et al.

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Hold the Option key and choose Help > Report bug to start a support ticket. And include why you think you have “corrupted databases”, etc.

this helped me “feel” better after blowing a few things initially.

you shouldn’t need to delete/reinstall DT. Duplicate your folders in Finder before deleting the databases in DT as a precaution.

On the next attempt to set up databases. . . .

  1. FIRST in Finder, create duplicates of the folders you want to use as DT database foundation.

  2. LOCK the original in Finder. Rename the duplicate by adding “1”, as a reminder that you’re working from a duplicate.

when you start afresh, import the Name1 folder, while ignoring the Locked folder.

This process allowed me to monkey around in DT to get the general operations down. It didn’t take long. All the while your original Folders in Finder are secure.

what i’ve said here may be a bit off target, but it helped me feel ok about meandering around DT, learning what does what, and how that translates into changes here and there.

A database in DT is just a package in some folder. It sounds as if you were talking about indexing. Are you? If not, what is the point of duplicating a folder if you import the content in DT? In that case DT makes a copy anyway.
It might help in understanding what DT does when and why to use clear terminology. And, of course (can that be over-stressed?) to read the fine manual. Especially the section on indexing and importing.

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here’s the deal.

i’ve read the manual.

and it doesn’t matter what ANY manual says. my post is about a new user experiencing the bells and whistles without exposing files to happenstance.

i’m a user, not a developer, i have a tad bit of developer kung fu. still; i’m a power user and not a developer.

more importantly, the files we’re working with are important. NEVER, EVER do an import, index, or any other call feature, link, or what ever you call it by ANY convention, unless you test it and know what it is that the app does with those files.

its just not possible, being a new user, to know what functions DT allows with files until all methods of communication with those files are explored.

so i can understand that manual or any manual all day long, but simply because a manual SAYS it does this or that doesn’t make it true that it does not also does, or does not do other things.

how many here have installed a microsoft product only to see their entire file structure hijacked by OneDrive?

if someone trusts a manual without protecting files he has a lot of dark days ahead.

my post is about feeling secure being a new user. duplicating a folder will not hairlip anyone’s world while they’re learning what DT does or does not do.

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I have been known to run a VM when I have big concerns about such things :slight_smile:

So you basically trust the file system to do what it says when you tell it to copy a file. But when DT tells the same file system to copy a file, you do not trust it.
How do you find out that you’ve tested everything an app can do? Can you ever be sure of that?

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do we have to do this?

your point is good but the analogy is dreadfully deficient.

a regular user has used copy, what, hundreds of thousands of times among various systems. they know what it does a million times over

but manipulating entire folders of presumably important files in a new application?

very different thing.

but i think you’re missing the point entirely and that’s ok. my advice was situational to a brand new user encountering issues. i just don’t see the harm in advising him to take precautions when starting out, so that he can visibly witness comparisons between the two folders, coupled with the security in knowing his data won’t be damaged.

basically the old adage, “back up your data before monkeying with it”. and you can add this, “until you know what you’re doing.”

i can’t imagine how what i wrote is offensive in any way whatsoever.