No problem. 
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Sorry to revive this thread but … what’s wrong with a flash drive (I’m using SD memory cards with exFat formatting) for my DEVONthink databases … they’ve grown to big for one computer and keep all my DBs in one place (with backups of the SD cards).
Am I jeopardising anything in doing so?
Thanks in advance!
SD cards and flash drives are not meant for the kind of sustained I/O used by applications. I would suggest you use proper external hard drives.
Note: For local sync stores, these types of media should be fine, though SD cards are somewhat fragile.
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OK thank you very much for your help and quick reply - duly noted: I will revert to a more “qualitative” flash drive (as in “external SSD”).
Yes, an external SSD would be a great choice, especially with capacities going up and prices going down!
I hope you do not mind if ask an additional question:
- Is there a way I can store my DevonThink files anywhere on cloud and keep them in sync with my local DTPO databases?
- If that’s not possible/advisable, is it the only solution to have an additional copy of DTPO databases stored either via Time Machine, NAS drive, another external dive, or as you stated elsewhere to periodically storing DTPO Database Archives externally?
- Regarding a Database Archives, is there a way I can periodically update them on a cloud storage without having to each time uploading the new archive while deleting the old one? In another words, can I replace the DTPO Archive existing file with the updated one so it just replaces the file changes let’s say with a third party app such as Sync Folders Pro?
I wish there is a possibility I can have additional cloud copy of my DTPO databases in sync with my primary computer…
Regards
Simple answer: No. Never do this and we specifically disallow opening databases in cloud-synced locations now.
I’m not sure what you mean by “an additional copy”. You can store your database on an external drive or NAS.
There is no support for “refreshing a ZIP file”. When you do a Database Archive, it generates a new ZIP file of the database in its current state.
Thanks for the informative post. Just to be sure on this: having a DevonThink database (not sync store) stored on a Webdav server LOCALLY mounted on macOS (for eg. using mountain duck) is NOT recommended / possible, correct?
While technically possible, we don’t recommend putting DEVONthink databases on an NAS. They should ideally be stored on the local machine or a connected external drive.
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Thanks. I guess the reason is that they will be more subject to data corruption during transfers - not an issue with DT itself, but if things go wrong, DT will “not look good in the picture”.
but if things go wrong, DT will “not look good in the picture”.
Indeed. Also NAS’ aren’t as performant especially on WiFi.
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A NAS directly connected via e.g. gigabit ethernet is actually an option and almost as reliable/fast as an external drive. Of course this depends on the drive and its connection too - e.g. the connection to a NAS (RAID with 4 discs) is a lot faster over here than the one to an external USB-3 disc.
But in the end I would only recommend to index files/folders stored on a NAS and to have the actual database (containing the search index, metadata, thumbnails etc.) still on the internal drive.
When you say “directly connected” what do you mean? Samba? NFS? Something else?
The reason I ask is that it’s my experience that a lot of small files over Samba can be slow depending on what is being done and how (not DT related). So I’m a bit curious over that part.
Only that the connection is not wireless.
OK, thanks
Could you tell me whether I can save my entire SSD, including DTPO databases, to a cold cloud storage and then periodically repeating the process just for the purpose of keeping a copy of my DTPO databases online? In another words, it’s not necessary first to export each DTPO zip archive database and then upload them to my cold storage account?
What is a “cold storage account”?
Sounds like you are copying your machine’s disk into a cloud-based server of a third party, e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. If so, what do you expect to do “online” with that data? If you are expecting to run DEVONthink pointing to that database, that will probably not work and is indeed not recommended (see the DEVONthink Handbook).
Exactly what are you trying to achieve?
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Hi. “Cold storage” is a cloud storage service. The only difference with a “normal” cloud service is that you don’t have an instant access to your data. I do not expect to do anything else with my cloud data but to keep an additional copy of my files. In another words, if something goes wrong with my DTPO database files on my SSD I can eventually download a reserve copy of my DTPO files from my cold storage account.
Humm. My best advice for this question is to try to do a “restore” from your cold storage location and see if it works for you. However …
Remember that DEVONthink “databases” are actually MacOS “packages” holding many thousands of files. Will the restore of all this always work as intended? Dunno.
I guess (without doing any testing) that I would use DEVONthink’s Menu: File/Database Archive … to create a zip file archive backup of the database package and put that single file into cold storage (along with previous archives?). There is also a “Daily Archive” script available in DEVONthink. I’ve set that up to run weekly (with a cron job).
Before doing that, though, if you haven’t already implemented a backup regime on your device, e.g. using TimeMachine or equivalent, I’d do that first.
Also see section “About Backups” in the outstanding DEVONthink manual (and in Help) for further elaboration.
No you should not put your DEVONthink databases in any cloud-synced location.
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