Deleted custom metadata field keeps resurrecting itself (despite deleting all entries)

DEVONthink
1

Hi,
I’m seeing an issue with a deleted RTF custom metadata field that keeps reappearing.
What I’ve already tried is batch processing all documents, groups and tags in the database to remove any data that used to be in that custom metadata field.
After deleting the field in the settings, my assumption would have been that it’s deleted for good but apparently it isn’t.
Any help would be appreciated - there are some related threads but none really answered this.

2

You might want to check if the data is deleted from all devices you sync with, too.

3

Had the same problem (but not with custom meta data of type RTF). The only thing that helped to get completely rid of the meta data was to delete it from every record. However, I used a scripting addition that doesn’t work on current macOS versions anymore.

So I think your only option is to try whether Script: Remove some custom meta data also works with custom meta data of type Rich Text. I did not test the following limitation with this new script:

Due to an AppleScript limitation it’s not possible to remove meta data of type rich text.

Reading the script and its description again now I don’t see a reason why it should not work.

4

I ran your script on all items in my database after adding the identifier for the field needing to be deleted. This seems to have worked, as far as I can tell. Thank you!

It seems to be necessary to first delete the field in settings and then afterwards run the script. In the reverse order, which I tried in my first attempt, the field did come back.

1 Like
5

Another observation in case it helps someone with the same issue:

I’m not 100% certain of this yet, but apparently what can also work is changing the field type to Boolean, then setting it to 0 via batch processing and finally deleting the field in the settings.

1 Like
6

Interesting. We’ll try this if we can reproduce the issue.
Thanks for sharing your observation. :slight_smile:

7

(I figured bumping this thread would be a better choice than starting a new one. Sorry if I made the wrong call!)

For what it’s worth, I’d like to report that I’m having the same issue in DEVONthink Pro 3.9.7 on macOS 14.6.1(23G93), MacBook Pro 13 inch (2018, intel chip), and this workaround indeed stopped the deleted fields from coming back:

1 Like
8

And check what @chrillek said, or it’ll reappear )

There was a bug with deleting RTF field earlier, but it is fixed now AFAIK. It was impossible to set new custom metadata to the record if there were RTF field in it. Now you can do it with script, just reconstruct this property without this exact item in list (meaning that custom metadata is a list of records in AppleScript terms).

9

Currently I’m not using the syncing features at all and have my databases on a single laptop (except backups, of course), but thank you for the kind reminder!