DEVONthink and iCloud-drive backed disks for non-shared DBs

DEVONthink Tips
1

I can hear teeth on edge from the topic name already! :laughing:

I know this a no-no. I actually removed iCloud for my desktop and home directory (despite the vast amount of space it reclaimed for me!) when I became a DT user, because it is quite clearly stated to not house a database on a shared drive, due to synchronisation instability.

However, my disk isnā€™t getting any bigger, and Iā€™m coming back to thinking about iCloud again.

If the disk isnā€™t shared with any other machines or users, and the DT database is just synced to DTTG devices, is it safe to use iCloud drive for ā€˜Desktop & Documents Foldersā€™, or is there a risk that macOS will silently ā€˜evaporateā€™ files to the cloud without letting DT know? (I thought the risk was just when you were syncing between multiple machines, rather than just between one machine and one iCloud account)

2

The risk has nothing to do with our sync engine. It has to do with the database files themselves. You should NOT cloud-sync the database (.dtBase2) files.

You need space? Grab an external drive and house your databases there.

3

Thanks for clarifying that, Jim.

Would be nice if Apple allowed you to specify paths to not sync, the same way you can specify paths to not search in Spotlight, but thatā€™s a whole other issue.

(Removes HomePod from Christmas list, writes in ā€˜1tb ssdā€™)

4

1TB SSDā€¦ Mmmmmmm :mrgreen:

5

Santa got me a macbook pro 15 inch with 2 TB SSD a year ago. Sweet indeed. :smiley:

6

So is someone like me out of luck and unable to use DTPO on my macbook?

I have 1TB of files on iCloud Drive that I want to import.
I have a MacBook with 250GB SSD drive.
I used iPads and iPhones and have purchased DTTG.

Other bucket apps such as ā€œKeep Itā€ that leverage iCloud are able to handle the disparity of local storage elegantly. Is that not the case with DTPO?

7

You have 1TB of documents that you want to import into a DEVONthink database? :open_mouth:

8

You got me. I was just aiming for the point.

To be more accurate, letā€™s say I have 50GB of free space on my MacBook, and I anticipate having 100GB of files including email archives and such.

9

It would be suggested to put the database on an external hard drive, portable of course. :smiley: