I own three licenses, for a laptop and two desktops, all Macs. Got the same version installed in all three, 3.9.6. I routinely use two databases, and my main desktop has the sync-stores for all three machines. Syncs were unremarkable until recently. The laptop and the main desktop still sync without a hitch. However, despite syncs occurring with the second desktop, the item count is different. I’ve rebuilt the databases on the low-count desktop to no avail. DT3 tells me everything is as it should be. The item count says otherwise. I’m baffled.
What is the variation? We can’t see your databases from here.
my main desktop has the sync-stores for all three machines.
So you’re using local sync stores? Please clarify.
And is anything reported in Window > Log?
Here’s a thought. If you want to find any differences in your databases, highlight all your files (or create a smartgroup that gets them all) and use Create Metadata Overview in each database.
That will give you CSV files you can slice and dice various ways.
An easy way to compare them is to go into a terminal window. Use the sort command to sort each of your Metadata Overview files, and use vimdiff for a visual tour of what’s different.
The item links may be different. You can delete that field by opening the Overview in Numbers, delete that column, and re-export to CSV.
If you have BBEdit, the compare feature there is very similar to vimdiff.
The log was empty. I’m really not interested in what the specific differences in the databases are. That one computer’s database can ostensibly sync with another but thereafter have a different item-count is the issue. I want to know how that circumstance came to be, so I can avoid it happening again. I have neither the time nor technical knowledge to pursue a detailed forensic analysis; I just want the machines’ databases to be the same. I’ve manually replaced the database files on the second desktop. Its database has the same item count as the other two, for now. If that’s what I have to do to keep them the same, then that’s what I’ll have to do.
Please use the search function in the forum. The question has been asked, discussed and answered several times. I don’t believe that there’s anything new to add to that.
I sought enlightenment by searching the forum prior to posting. I’d appreciate your providing a single link to a post that dealt with this problem. Just one…
I am assuming you read through some of these posts.
Lots of them are specific to iOS vs MacOS counts being different but @BLUEFROG’s explanations and tech support for all of them come with many explanations for the variations in count.
That’s where I’d start.
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iOS is not involved in my situation. My experience with DTTG on iOS is so dismal, I wouldn’t even have bothered to report an item count problem there. I exhausted DT’s on-board means to correct my database problems before I ever searched for a community solution - verification, optimization, rebuilding - none of it made any difference. The affected machine’s item count varied by the same number with every sync, which proceeded to add new items as though nothing was wrong, at all. My DT databases are on Macs, synced to my primary machine. I inspected but didn’t find any illumination among the post-names displayed in chrillek’s post - which included mine. Judging by those links’ content, and a good number of their satellite links, DT item count problems are long-standing, poorly understood, and still occur. Saying an unaddressed problem has been discussed before doesn’t lessen its frequency or adverse impact on DT users. If there’s a solution other than replacing the database on the affected machine, I didn’t see it.
we may have the same issue. in my case with a new MacBook. 2 laptops and one iOS. All sync except when I add or modified anything on the new laptop, it doesn’t sync to the other two devices. I think that’s your issue as well as the “count” reflects modifying anything.
let us know if you find a solution
How do you make a particular desktop your sync-store location?
As far as I can tell the only solution is to replace a problematic database. I back-up my drives every week, and will add cloning my DT3 databases to that practice. As a point of clarification, the database with the smaller item count DID reliably accept new items with every sync - but its item count was ALWAYS different by the same number of items after each sync. That situation arose very recently, and I was just trying to find out why, to resolve it and avoid its recurring. There doesn’t seem to be a way to do that, so cloning and replacing databases when necessary appears to be the only solution.
Have you done a File > Verify & Repair Database on the problematic database in DEVONthink on each Mac?
I’ve got a drive partition on my primary computer dedicated to holding a xxx.dtCloud sync-store. The other two computers use it over their common network. Enable incoming bonjour connections on the computer with the sync-store, and disable them on the other computers. I expect it’s the same setup with iOS devices, although I only occasionally use DTTG on an iPhone, which syncs most of the time. My expectations regarding DT’s iOS products are significantly lower than those of their computer products.
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I exhausted ALL of DT’s database tools before I searched the DT database for solutions. Nothing made any difference, at all. One computer’s database consistently reported an item count that was smaller by the same amount between syncs.
Are both Macs running the same operating system?
To confirm, with all synching turned off, you did both a Verify & Repair and Rebuild on all databases?
I d9nt think all you have mentioned work. I did a verify,rebuld and repair and it only took 2 seconds and done, how does it check an entire database in two seconds lol
I only performed operations on the machine with the problematic database. The other two synced without problems, and still do. Replacing the database on the machine experiencing the problem appears to have solved it.
The machines’ OS are not the same. The primary one is 14.6.1, the other two are versions of 10.14. In order to use the same OSes I’d have to buy new CPUs. Ain’t gonna happen.