disappearing sorter?

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hi all,

My Sorter has disappeared, and I can’t figure out how to restore it…

  • verified that Visibility is Full, and reset full screen apps
  • reduced from three monitors to one
  • trashed Sorter prefs, and, when that did nothing, trashed DTPro prefs too
  • removed any log in items added recently except one (see below), restarted
  • verified that the Sorter is being added to the log in items when I click the pref

One possible clue: I’ve noticed that if I check ‘start at login’ in the prefs, quit and re launch (with or without logging out/in), then when I check prefs again, it is unchecked. However, ‘Quit Sorter’ is still available in the DTPro menu (which seems odd).

Also, I have not removed the ‘iTunes Helper’ (iTunes 10) login item that is before the Sorter in the list - assuming (perhaps wrongly) that as an Apple app it should be okay - plus I don’t know how I’d restore it…

Anyone have thoughts on further troubleshooting?

Thanks
Steven

DevonThink Pro 2.0.5, OS 10.5.8

2

Please quit the Sorter (either via the Dock or Tools menu), then delete its preferences and launch it again. Is the Sorter now visible?

3

I tried that again a few times, but unfortunately without success.

I can see in Activity Monitor that the Sorter process is quitting properly, and successfully relaunching (via the Tools menu) - and I’ve verified that ‘Full’ is selected under Visibility - but I still can’t see it anywhere.

I’ve also verified visually that the Sorter prefs are being re-created okay after trashing them and relaunching.

Very odd…!

4

Do you use WriteRoom or Spaces or are still multiple monitors attached?

5

Hi Christian,

I don’t use Spaces or WriteRoom. I do still have multiple monitors, but I had been testing it by mirroring (so all three displayed the same thing).

However, I just tried again after physically disconnecting the two extras, quitting the Sorter, trashing its Prefs, and relaunching. Still can’t see it (and visibility is set to Full).

The only display-related app I used is a little window moving utility called SizeUp, but disabling that has never made any difference either. Have also done multiple restarts too, but no success.

I didn’t realize how much I depend on the Sorter until this glitch!

Steven

6

Please try this:

  1. Quit the Sorter
  2. Delete its preferences ~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think-sorter.plist
  3. Use only one monitor
  4. Restart the computer
  5. Launch the Sorter

That should definitely fix the problem. If not, did you install any third-party stuff or did you change anything lately?

7

Tried all steps again - no difference.
Disabled recent 3rd party app auto startups that might have coincided with the problem (SizeUp and Snapper) and repeated steps - no difference.

I regularly update my existing apps - some of which include background drivers (e.g audio drivers), so it’s possible one of those updates might have caused this - but unfortunately I can’t identify which ones might coincide with the problem, as I don’t keep track of those kinds of routine updates. And most of those would be difficult to revert.

8

I seem to have fixed it - though I’m not really much wiser about it…

I logged in with a Guest account, to see if the problem persisted there. It did - could not get the Sorter to display there either. At that point, I figured it had to be a corruption within the app itself, rather than user prefs.

So I deleted DTPro and prefs files (except registration), and reinstalled the app.

Everything is working fine again - returned to 3 monitors, restored recent 3rd party apps, restarted several times, all with no problem.

Here’s hoping it stays that way!