Did rebuild and now both databases are completely empty then all data orphaned

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21

I am not sure why my last two archives had the same problem as shown by the screenshots.

My Dec 19, 2019 archive was repairable but my Jan 24 and Jan 12 were not

The archives I did should have given me a reliable database the only 1 of the last 3 I did had errors that was fixable.

I guess I cannot trust Devonthink as a being a reliable software.

Oh well.

The very best,
-BrianP

22

I created a new database and copied Jan 24 folders into it and it archived with no errors!

23

The frequency of your backups usually determine the amount of data you loose should you need te restore a backup.

There are many things to consider with backups, and the amount of effort and money you put into it primarily depend on your loss should all your backups fail. To name just a few (and certainly not all) considerations, you might want to:

  • encrypt your backups (e.g. in case of theft)
  • use multiple external media on-site (e.g. in case a medium fails)
  • store at least one medium off-site (e.g. in case your house burns down)
  • regularly test your backups (e.g. in case you happened to backup the wrong data)
  • use additional read-only media like DVD-R or Blueray (e.g. in the case of ransomware attacks)

And the most important in my opinion: consider using a backup method that is automated to a level of “zero-effort”. Most people that depend on a habit to backup, will eventually forget to do it, and that might be the moment you require your backup.

The easiest (zero-cost) backup method on macOS is Time Machine in my opinion (although other software might have additional benefits). It will back-up your data incrementally, only adding the files you changed. Keep in mind though Time Machine requires an HFS formatted disk and doesn’t support APFS (yet) AFAIK. That said, once you get Time Machine going, you practically don’t have to think about it anymore.

I hope I haven’t asked this before, but is there a way to automate the verification proces (in line with reasoning behind automating back-ups)?

If subsequent repair might bring about changes that could be detrimental, I personally wouldn’t want to automate that though. But an automatic warning that DEVONthink found errors would be nice IMO.

24

In the normal course of things, a repair or rebuild should have no ill effects on a database.

It would be possible to automate a verification using a Reminder. It would just require the addition of a Reminder script for the purpose. Perhaps that will be a new one in the Extras soon.

25

Perhaps I misunderstand, but wouldn’t that still require some user action (i.e. acting upon the reminder)? That would be similar to set a reminder to perform a backup, which probably isn’t as sustainable as a “zero effort, behind your back” verify and repair I think.

I’ll just wait and see :slight_smile:

26

Perhaps I misunderstand, but wouldn’t that still require some user action (i.e. acting upon the reminder)?

No, there’s no need to respond to a Reminder. That depends onthe what alarm type is. You can use an Execute External (or Embedded) Script as an alarm. That would just run the script at the time of the alarm.

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