What is the “.DEVONtech_storage” metadata file for (in resulting export folder). Is it necessary to keep this file in the exported folder, or is it safe to remove it (or will that cause me to lose any metadata I’ve applied to the particular file prior to exporting it from DT?
You need that file if you import that folder into a (possibly different) database. If you don’t, you can safely remove it.
What exactly is it needed from if I do intent of reimporting into a different DT database? Are there certain metadata/attributes fields that are properly re-imported if this file exists, than might not be if the file does not exist? Please explain…Thanks!
Anything that is specific to the metadata as used internally in the database for those files. So, for example, if you set the comment for one file that will be properly restored.
No harm done if you don’t have that metadata file, but you lose the extra information that you might have painstakingly entered.
So obviously that means that any comments I apply to files in DT aren’t also being apply to the comments field as accessible from the Finder’s ‘Get Info’ window? In other words, comments aren’t applied to exported files themselves…at all…other than those being housed in the .DEVONtech_storage record?
That is correct.
Note, however, that if you use File > Export > Files & Folders to export one or more files to the Finder, the names you have given them in DEVONthink will be the names of those files in the Finder.
However, if you simply drag & drop the files into the Finder, the names assigned in DEVONthink won’t be assigned to those files.
If you have added some exceptionally neat comments to a document’s Comment field, you can always copy and paste them into the File’s Spotlight Comments field before you send it to a friend or colleague. 