I just installed DevonThink a few weeks ago (got it with the MacHeist package). One of the first things I decided to do was to try indexing my external harddrive. This took a while to accomplish, but eventually it finished. Now, whenever I start DT, it is forever loading, and takes up all of my computer’s resources so that I’m lucky if I’m able to force quit the program without having to reboot the computer completely. Any advice???
Your database is stretching the resources available on your computer. The limiting factor is the amount of physical RAM in your computer (and of course you need sufficient free disk space as well, so that your operating system can ‘breathe’.
I advise new users not to index all the contents of a hard drive. DT isn’t a Finder replacement.
Instead, create a database of the files that interest you and that you would like to ‘mine’ for information. That’s what DT shines at.
My main database contains about 21,000 documents and a total of more than 24 million words. It runs well on my MacBook Pro with 2 GB RAM.
yeah, I kinda figured that after the fact. but now, I can’t do anything with DT, or even open it. Any suggestions as to how to get it back to working order?
Assuming that you Indexed the files, leaving all the files on your external disk still there, you can simply delete the current DT Personal database and try again.
The database is the folder named ‘DEVONthink’ in this location:
~/Library/Application Support/
Quit DT PE (if it’s open). Select (don’t open) the folder named ‘DEVONthink’ and delete it.
The next time you launch DT PE, it will create a new, empty database.
thanks!