DevonThink mobile documents inside Library Folder

DEVONthink
1

Hello everyone,

I am using DaisyDisk to oversee which folders take up how much space on my internal SSD. I have found an mobile documents folder inside the Library folder for DevonThink Pro Office, that takes up over 350 GB and is the by far biggest folder inside my library folder.

What is this mobile documents folder and what does it do? And does it need to take up so much space, even if my local DT-libraries only take about 35GB of storage all together?

Many thanks for your support.

2

What’s the path and folder name?

4

Here is what Dropbox says about folder locations for syncing. Note that Dropbox made changes as required by Apple a while back.

As to the size discrepancy, I recall this discussed previously here on this forum, but I forget the details so I’ll let others (esp. @Bluefrog) to comment or point to previous posts.

5

User/paule/Libary/MobileDocuments/DEVONthink Pro Office/DEVONthin/

I need to mention that I sync via iCloud. I believe this could be somehow connected to my iCloud and the sync-method, could it? But if so, why is it 10x bigger than the original libraries?

6

Actually neither used by iCloud (Legacy) nor iCloud (CloudKit) nor by DEVONthink on its own.

7

So, what is this folder then used for?

8

Definitely neither used nor created by DEVONthink which doesn’t use folders name “DEVONthink Pro Office” and never did.

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9

Okay, thanks. But who should know, if not you, who are creating this great software? :smiley:

I believe that this is somehow created and being used by iCloud for iCloud-Sync, since it leads directy to mobile documents, which seems to be the icloud sync directory.

10

The Legacy sync uses a directory in Mobile Documents, but it is not that directory. It uses ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~679S2QUWR8~com~devon-technologies~sync

11

Okay. So, what’s your suggestion? Delete the folder and see what happens?

12
  • Were and are you using a Legacy sync?
    • If not, what sync method are you using?

No, I wouldn’t blindly delete a folder in your user Library.
I don’t use DaisyDisk. Open the directory. What’s stored in it?

13

I am using iCloud legacy sync. Maybe you remember, that I have had some trouble with WebDav sync a couple of month ago and you and I coulnd’t find any solution, so your advice was to change the sync method. So I used iCloud Legacy and my problems dissolved (but speed is very very slow…)

I am not able to open the directory inside finder, since mobile documents leads directly to my iCloud Drive directory.
I am able to oversee Inside the directory within DaisyDisk, I find further subfolders DEVONthink Pro Office / DEVONthink / and folders with numbers and characters, but no specific documents like pdfs or anything from inside my local databases.

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I coulnd’t find any solution, so your advice was to change the sync method.

I would likely have suggested a Bonjour sync on your local network. :wink:

So I used iCloud Legacy and my problems dissolved (but speed is very very slow…)

Actually, the sync to your local machine is very fast. The speed of the sync to Apple’s servers and your other devices is governed by Apple’s iCloud processes, the intervening network, etc.

but no specific documents like pdfs or anything from inside my local databases.

That’s because those documents are not in the sync data. Sync has never worked that way, no matter the sync method.

I find further subfolders DEVONthink Pro Office / DEVONthink / and folders with numbers and characters

You are reporting unusual conditions here. Hold the Option key and choose Help > Report bug to start a support ticket.

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