DEVONthink To Go 4.0 Kepler

Five months ago we sent DEVONthink 4.0 Copernicus to the stars. Today, DEVONthink To Go 4.0 Kepler* has lifted off the launch ramp, following its sibling’s course with all power levers full forward. Welcome on board!

Our fourth generation of DEVONthink To Go comes with countless new features both long-requested and brand new — say hello to generative AI, custom metadata, versioning, and revision-proof databases. Search with a greatly enhanced search language and save searches as smart groups. Of course, we’ve improved almost every other aspect of the app, too, and packaged everything into a user interface that embraces Apple’s Liquid Glass design language.

And if you are already a user of DEVONthink 4 for the Mac, you’ll certainly like our new license model: One license for both platforms. Use your existing DEVONthink Pro or Server license for unlocking DEVONthink To Go and manage all your devices from your customer account.

Learn more about DEVONthink To Go 4.0 Kepler on the product page, check upgrade options in the Upgrader’s Guide, and download the app to your iPad or iPhone from the App Store.

*) This version is named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) who revolutionized astronomy by discovering the laws of planetary motion, proving that planets orbit the Sun in ellipses. His work bridged observation and mathematics, exemplifying how curiosity, precision, and persistence lead to discovery and create knowledge.

AI, Always at Your Service

On par with its Mac counterpart, DEVONthink To Go 4 lets you have chats with your documents, get summaries, or let the AI assign tags, labels, or ratings. Find documents using natural language or generate relevant visuals for your materials directly within the app using AI image generation. DEVONthink To Go supports online models such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Mistral AI as well as models installed locally on a Mac, Windows-PC, or Linux computer via engines such as Ollama or LM Studio. You decide whether and how you want to use them. AI remains a private matter.

Search with Power

Find exactly what you need at any moment with a powerful new search language. It is compatible to DEVONthink for Mac and supports also suffix searches. Construct complex queries or let the AI-powered search assistant convert queries written in plain English to DEVONthink To Go’s search syntax. Freely define smart groups that collect matching items across your databases.

Custom Metadata

Another feature that has arrived from the Mac in DEVONthink To Go is custom metadata. Define your own fields to track projects, priorities, clients, or anything else that matters to you. All custom metadata is fully searchable and seamlessly syncs with DEVONthink for Mac

Versioning, Revision-Proof Databases

For changes to, e.g., text documents or PDFs, DEVONthink To Go 4 can automatically create versions that you can return to later if necessary. Save a new version manually when appropriate, and set how many versions DEVONthink To Go should keep. It never removes manually created versions. And finally, revision-proof databases restrict editing of documents and log deletions. Export an audit log at any time to prove that your data is consistent. Suitable for financial documents or other documents with special requirements.

One License to Rule Them All

You asked for it and we heard you: our Mac, iPad, and iPhone versions of DEVONthink now share a single license. All licenses for DEVONthink Pro 4 include five seats for mobile devices, DEVONthink Server 25 seats, that you can use to unlock DEVONthink To Go’s full functionality. Your Mac license only needs to be eligible for updates.

Of course, there are also traditional subscriptions with one month free trial, if you don’t have a Mac, use DEVONthink Standard 4, or are satisfied with an older generation of DEVONthink. Legacy subscriptions from DEVONthink To Go 3 work too, and legacy one-time purchases bought in 2024 or later unlock version 4 until the end of 2026.

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Yay! Congrats DEVONthink team :clap:

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Non-Denominational Annual Festive Winter Gift Giving Season came early this year!!!

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should I uninstall DTTG3 before installing DTTG4? Or after?

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If you want to have your databases, that you downloaded already to your device, carried over, then first make sure that you have the latest version of DEVONthink To Go 3 installed, 3.8.14, and launched at least once. The install DEVONthink To Go 4, launch it once, and when it’s all set up, delete version 3 from the device.

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Very nice all-around! Congratulations!

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What happens to the CloudKit data once you uninstall DTTG3?

A post was split to a new topic: DEVONthink To Go 4 License question

Congrats, team! This software has helped me for years. Relieved to see the generous licensing approach for 4.0 desktop users.

This is the only compelling reason for me to update to iOS 26… will have to plan that weekend project.

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In theory, nothing should happen, but you might want to make sure to install DTTG4 before uninstalling DTTG3.

I did just the opposite :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot, the redesign of the UI is beautiful and it feels like you included pretty much every feature I was still missing from DTTG! I appreciate the smart groups and the addition of a dedicated, always-present search button as well as the nice new settings dialog.

If you don’t mind going into this sort of “internals”, how did the switch to the new design paradigm feel and are you going to adopt more liquid-glass-isms?

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It was, actually, a bumpy ride especially as Apple kept changing the design while we were implementing it. We will adopt more as we go and where it makes sense.

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Congrats on/thanks for the update—I’m excited to start using it! The app looks polished and the design is great. (For example, the small icon indicating the document type; the buttons throughout the app.)

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Immediately crashes every time I try and activate my license. Nothing in the log. Can’t recall how to raise a bug, happy to email if someone reminds me.

See: DEVONthink To Go 4 License question

Ah, I see I’m not alone. Thanks.

All the more astonishing then what a great job you all did. DTTG 4 is, in my view, one of the best implementations of Liquid Glass, even better than some of Apple’s own apps. Despite being more powerful than DTTG 3, DTTG 4 feels much more approachable, joyful, and easier to use. (This is of course not just due to Liquid Glass, but the general UI changes. The redesigned Settings, for example, are great.)

While I believe that @cgrunenberg said somewhere in this forum that the implementation of Liquid Glass is ‘grudgingly’ planned for DT4 on the Mac, after using DTTG 4 I am looking forward to it.

Speaking of DT4, I believe that DTTG 4 now contains some newer AI models such as Claude 4.5 Haiku that are not yet available in DT4. I hope that we will soon get an update for DT4 to include them there as well, even if it doesn’t contain any other new features.

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Congratulations! Was not expecting that to drop.

Use your existing DEVONthink Pro or Server license for unlocking DEVONthink To Go

and I was really not expecting that, for which I am grateful.

edit: OMG it migrates the existing database on first run swoons

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Great to hear

Any change/improvement to the syncing algorithm?

The biggest stumbling block I have always had with DTTG has been the need to manually encourage it to continue syncing due to Apple limitations. Have you been able to work around that somehow?