I would find it helpful to get information about the “activities” as things happen and not just several clicks away to display the activities.
I find this useful in different scenarios. Most of all, when synchronizing my databases, I want to make sure that I do not leave the app before the sync is completed.
When I check and repair databases, this happens without feedback. I then started the process to quickly call up the activity window, where I could see what was happening. Woudl be nice to get this info without going into the menus.
The Activity pane at the bottom of the sidebar of main windows is automatically shown and hidden by background activities. The stand-alone Window > Activity panel should therefore be rarely necessary. Repairing databases is a special case as the app is basically frozen (it’s not a background activity, kind of similar to repairing a startup volume) but an alert is shown when done.
I got your points. I still think the experience could be improved. The activity window toggles between the busy and sleeping icons, and I am unsure what is happening or what is to come. Sometimes I wait a few seconds, and then something else starts (indexing, upload, sync of the next database). It’s not a big issue, just the feeling that I wish know what is going on in more detail, giving me a little more confidence while waiting.
We thought long about how we can square that circle: Make an icon that conveys meaning but not too much so people are not overwhelmed. And custom icons, like we had in DEVONthink To Go 3 with it’s slowly filling cloud no longer work properly without glitches on iOS 26. It used to be a workaround that finally fell apart because Apple does not like the idea.
If there is a list of things that will happen, just showing that list? I already found useful to know which database is synced and which is yet to be done. Somehow watching that info, makes the wait more comfortable? … probably more a psychological thing (similar to waiting for train and getting no, or some info, which changes the perception, regardless of the actual delay :).
When I click on the Acivity panel, I see the busy icon or the sleeping icon. I do not see a list of tasks that are done, have been done, or will come up. I then find myself waiting a while to see whether eventually there is another task coming up. These tasks often come with a gap of a few seconds, say indexing, spotlight search stuff. Also I do not see which or whether a sync takes place, ecxept a short blinking up of a sync. To see whether all databases have been synced I need to go to settings > sync > sync location > databases. There I can an update of a successful or ongoing sync. If the things that are going to happen are listed in the activity panel, I can see what has been done and whether things are still going on, instead of waiting for the toggle between the two icons to eventually stop.
That is correct. Similarly to the Activity panel in DEVONthink on the Mac, only active tasks are shown. We don’t want to overwhelm our customers with already obsolete data (done tasks), planned tasks come up when their time has come and no other, more important tasks keep them from being executed. We manage resources here. And syncs are shown longer than a split second if they take longer, of course.
Dear Eric, thank you for your response. When I pull down on the main page of DTTG, I am unable to view the current status of the sync process, particularly whether it has been completed. Could you consider optionally displaying the activity on the main page, as it is currently hidden within the menu?
As pointed out: There is no bottom toolbar in sidebars on iOS 26 forward. We could add it to the front page on the iPhone, but not on the iPad. And you can summon the Activity panel at any time via the menu.
Thank you so much for the clarification. It would be wonderful to have an immediate visual indication on the DTTG main page that the sync process is complete. If there’s a way to enhance this visualization in the future, it would be greatly appreciated. I completely understand, however, that there are limitations imposed by iOS itself. I truly value the fantastic DTTG4 software and all the hard work that goes into it.
Why not having the activity display being the same as the info in the synchronisation settings submenu. There one has the databases listed, with the time of the last sync, and an indication what is currently being synced?
We’re still on iOS where simplicity rules. If we clutter the Activity panel with a list of all databases including their last sync date, it’ll be, well, cluttered. We want to keep things clean and simple. And this is all no different than in DEVONthink on the Mac.
On the list of databases, dots behind database names already show when a database is dirty, which means it has local changes that have not yet been synced. No dot, no local changes.