I have no idea what happened – I downloaded Devonthink 3.0 (on Mac) at the end of June and spent an entire day adding and indexing files. Throughout the process, I checked to make sure all the files were storing on my computer without issue, and all seemed fine. Fast forward to today, I cannot find anything. My Devonthink 3.0 is completely empty. There is no database. Finder search yields nothing. Looking under Finder –> Library also nothing.
I am starting a new job next week and these files were my life… If they are gone, I have no clue what I would do. I have barely been using my computer over the last few months so the odds of me unknowingly deleting or moving them is low… But I am by no means a computer whiz, so anything is possible. I tried looking up other fixes from people in the forum; I tried the first few solutions, but now I am just dejected and wondering if anyone can help me.
I apologize in advance if my communication or knowledge base on this matter is poor. I was in a rush to transfer and organize all my templates from my old job to my personal computer before losing access (I’m a stupid physician and foolishly waited til the last day on the job to transfer all the files). In doing so, I did not give the manual a full read through and I’m worried this is all self-inflicted now.
What I was doing was copy/pasting text into Devonthink in hopes of starting a database. Everything, I thought, was being saved as an RTF file. Once all my information was entered, I would drag the various tags to help organize and everything seemed great. I thought I created hundreds of separate files – different operative reports for different scenarios, all sorted and all saved. I believed it was all saved externally to my MacBook. When I searched in my Finder, all the files appeared, as RTF. It was lovely. I was amazed by how simple it all seemed. And relieved to know that it would not be impacted by me losing Microsoft Word / OneNote access.
I go on vacation, turn my brain off for 2 months, and now I’m getting ready for the new job and open everything up… There is nothing. At all. I open up Devonthink 3.0 and all the menu options are all shaded out. None of the prior tags exist anywhere. I search ~library and open up Inbox.dtBase2, and nothing. Emptiness. Because everything is all shaded out, and I am afraid that I may make things worse, I cannot even tell you how I entered the text into Devonthink to generate the RTF files and dragged the tags over. But I can tell you it was about 12 hours of copy/pasting/tagging and about many, many years of my lifes work… Sigh.
In reviewing this: Can't find (working) DT database - #29 by troejgaard I am worried that I may have just resorted to default save mode and not actually been saving my work to my actual hard drive? I swear on my life that everything was searchable on my Finder and I was able open the RTF files outside of Devonthink.
So… is it fair to say it is all gone?
Sorry again for the computer speak illiteracy, I know it makes it really hard to understand what I was doing before.
Hard for me to do because everything is shaded out and I cannot click, but looking at the menu options I believe it was probably Data –> New –> Plain text?
Ok, so in retracing my steps, because I know I tested a few files… I just opened up Textedit and found 2 files. DEVONthink > Inbox.dtbase2 > Files.noindex > rtf > 2. I found it as a recently opened file. I cant figure out how to access these files though, bc inbox.dtbase2 is basically a dead end for me.
Now, in TextEdit, if I go to File > Open… I can access all of my files! I am just going to copy and paste all of these elsewhere, probably download word and save as a million word files, I am too scared to figure out why I cant search for these files or find them any other way.
1 - Thats what I thought – but being computer illiterate, clearly I need the experts help to figure that out. 2 - Honestly, I think it was the version I found under the Apps tab at the time (end of June). I was not interested in the other apps that talked about AI bc it seemed like my needs were very basic. I am aware I am running version 3, now I realize being out of date does not help the situation. 3 - I still have the free version, I wanted to trial to see if it was the right fit before paying for it.
The trial runs for 30 days or 150 non-consecutive hours. Based on what you’re describing (and my initial thoughts), it is most likely the trial has run out … and no, there’s no extensions for the trial. You can purchase a license for DEVONthink 4 and you have 14 days in which to finally determine if you’re keeping it or not. If your needs are simple enough, you may be fine using the Standard edition.
Like many things in DEVONthink, AI is optional in DEVONthink 4. There is no requirement to use it and you can’t use it without explicitly setting it up. Also, version 3 has been superseded by version 4. While there will be maintenance done in 3 for a period of time, version 4 is the focus of development and what you should be running. You can download version 4 from our Downloads and install it in the /Applications directory. However, delete the DEVONthink 3 application from this folder and reboot the machine. Do not run an uninstaller application. After the reboot, launch DEVONthink 4.
PS: Based on your screen capture: (1) you are only using the Global Inbox, (2) you are importing the files into the database, and (3) you should not be descending into the database’s package like that. In this instance, you were merely seeing if the files existed. Now that you’ve confirmed they’re there, you should stay out of the internals.
Wow, that makes way too much sense. So, if I purchase a license for DEVONthink 4, then DEVONthink should be usable and I should be able to manage my files again?! I feel so… stupid. Sorry for wasting your time so something so seemingly… obvious. It really made no sense that the files couldn’t be found, I knew I tested it after creating the database.
And thank you for interpreting all of that based on my screen shot, I will use that information to do things correctly moving forward
No worries, no wasted time, and not stupid at all. We were all beginners at many something or anothers throughout our lives.
And yes, you will purchase a license and apply a seat to the Mac. (You get two seats with a purchase, e.g., for a desktop and laptop Mac.) When DEVONthink 4 launches, it will migrate the DEVONthink 3 application support resources and should open with your Global Inbox intact.
PS: You should also spend a little time in the Getting Started section of the built-in Help and manual. It’s the 1000-foot view of the philosophy and components of the app. And of course, it gets into more specifics from there.
