I’m not even sure this is a question, but it’s a behavior I wasn’t expecting and want to make sure I understand…
I’ve got a synced database with an indexed folder. The folder is in Dropbox, and DT also syncs via Dropbox, between my work computer and my home computer. (The original indexing was done on my home computer.)
I see in the Help and documentation that, if I’m concerned about Devonthink using too much space, I can disable the option to “Synchronize contents of indexed items”. But it warns that the local Dropbox folder has to be in the same relative location. Mine is, but also I have plenty of storage so I haven’t touched that option and it remains checked.
What I haven’t been able to find in the documentation is an explanation of what happens if that box is checked - where does the synced indexed item live? And after I imported the synced database to my work computer, I was surprised to see that when I right-clicked on a synced indexed file and selected “Show in finder,” it brought me right to the correct Dropbox folder in my work computer’s directory structure.
I suppose what I am asking is this: if I index some Dropbox files on computer1, and sync that database to computer2, where do the indexed files in Devonthink point? When I use Devonthink to edit an indexed Dropbox text file on computer2, what exactly is it editing in the Finder?
Maybe this is all a misunderstanding on my part about how this all works! Just that I have two copies of DT on two macs, plus DTTG, plus I am on the verge of upgrading to the Server edition to let a research assistant access my files, so I figure I should have a better understanding of what’s going on under the hood.
DEVONthink uses files in the local database or in the local filesystem, meaning that the files always “live” on your computer in the expected location which can be checked v.a. Data > Show In Finder.
However, in case of indexed cloud folders it’s up to the cloud app to synchronize the files between computers to avoid race conditions (e.g. unnecessary duplicates) on the Mac.
Finally, if DEVONthink To Go is used, then the sync store’s Synchronize contents of indexed items should remain enabled.
If the indexed folder is synced by Dropbox to both computers with the same relative path, and the database is synced by Devonthink to both computers, then on each computer the “Show in Finder” command will point to the local copy of the Dropbox files?
If Devonthink defers to Dropbox in that way, and “sync contents of indexed files” is on, then where are those contents synced so that DTTG can access them?
I’m posting this new question here because it may be related to the Dropbox issue.
On my iMac, I have indexed a folder called BBT, which lives in ~/Dropbox. The same folder exists in the Dropbox folder on my Macbook. I cannot get it to show up in the Macbook copy, but it does show up in Devonthink To Go on my iPad.
The iMac runs Devonthink Server and it shows up when I login to the server as well.
I’ve tried verifying & repairing the database on the Macbook, which doesn’t work (it produces a couple of unrepairable errors but those seem to be unrelated files).
But what do you have on your iPad? A “folder” – where? Something in your Dropbox app? Something somewhere else – but where?
“I cannot get it to show up in the Macbook copy” You said before that you have ~/Dropbox on your MB – how does it not “show up”? And what is this “copy” a copy of?
Thanks for everyone’s help. Yes, I’d used the update indexed items command, which hadn’t done anything.
To @chrillek 's question, the errors were about a few PDF files in a different parent folder.
On the Macbook, after I moved the orphaned files to the Trash, and then emptied the Trash, I was able to verify the database. I guess that was the issue, because then I updated indexed items again, and the BBT folder appeared in Devonthink on the Macbook.
Sorry for any confusion. The files that were causing the verification/repair errors were PDFs in an “orphaned files” group. But they all had size of zero KB and were not openable. I am not sure what happened with them, but they were imported files, and not related to the indexed folder “BBT” I’m talking about here. I deleted them, emptied the trash, repaired, and resync’d the database, and then “BBT” showed up.