Dropbox and Onedrive locations being automatically changed....effect on indexed DT databases

At least the comments are not that overwhelming :smile: I only tested it for some time using few files/folders and this new experience is definitely a pain in the rear end.

The good news is that the support for indexed items which were replaced by aliases or symbolic links like in this case has been improved for the next release. And DEVONthink’s own synchronization won’t delete files/folders located in cloud folders anymore, that’s now completely up to the cloud service/client to avoid race conditions.

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So can I confirm that the local full size files are all moved to the normally invisible ~/Library/iCloudStorage/OneDrive and an alias to this is placed in Finder sidebar under “Locations” …and DEVONthink carries on working for indexed files as before …or does DEVONthink need re-pointing at the new location to keep working?
Dropbox will do the same at some point.
Effectively the ~/Library/iCloudStorage/OneDrive is a local cache.
So backing up of the actual files with Time Machine etc will still happen but will take a bit more finding.

There are issues with the current release and its handling of aliases. Therefore I would definitely recommend to update the path via the Info inspector. Ideally the path of the indexed files should be the same on all machines and the same versions of DEVONthink, macOS and OneDrive should be used. And of course pinning the files/folders is also recommended as indexing requires local copies.

Thanks. I don’t actually use OneDrive, but I do have a few thousand indexed files on Dropbox which I fully expect to experience the same changes, and want to be ready.

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Here is a question: I really like the Power of DT3 and I index a Dropbox and Google Drive folder … For some of the things that need to stay in those places, how is Eagle Filer planning on handling this ? Maybe I consider switching to that for the DB and Google items; will these changes effect Eagle Filer as well ??

I plan on keeping the bulk of my stuff in DT3, if the update breaks dropbox, I will just import what I dont need to stay in dropbox

There is currently no reason to suspect that the update will break anything permanently, but it may require you to change the paths to the DB directory in DT.

I would guess it is fair to assume that any other software which relies on files being at the end of a path is likely to react adversely to that path changing without the software being told… however, I hardly think the DT forum is the right place to ask how EF is planning to handle the impending changes.

At the moment, my interpretation of the situation is: be aware, have backups, change paths when necessary.

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??? :thinking:
Are you on the wrong forum?

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep an open eye …

Maybe my wording was unclear … I didn’t mean to ask how the EF developers were planning to handle it I was more asking the people in this group who know that product how EF currently handles it… Meaning, will the dropbox change effect that program too, that’s all. I remain a loyal DT user.

I’m kinda guessing that most will not be using the two apps in parallel, but I may be wrong. Remaining a loyal DT user sounds like a good plan to me :slight_smile: Keep an eye on developments, change the path if it becomes appropriate to do so. And, as mentioned before, make sure your backups are up to date and include items in Dropbox - that, of course, is good practice at any time, but especially now when changes are expected.

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This. Would it be possible to make this a (hidden) preference, because this is actually the behavior I want (delete in DT → delete in iCloud indexed folder)

If an indexed cloud file is deleted in DEVONthink, then it’s deleted on the local computer (after confirming the alert) too. Afterwards it’s up to the cloud service/app to synchronize the filesystem to other computers to avoid race conditions.

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Thanks for taking the time to answer, even on a Sunday!

I’m confused now. I’ve got two folders, both indexed folders on iCloud. The main difference between them is one is non-shared iCloud folder (folder A) and one is a shared iCloud folder (folder B).

  1. When deleting a file from folder A, emptying the trash and confirming the aler, the file is indeed removed from the iCloud folder
  2. When deleting a file from folder B, emptying the trash and confirming the alert, the file is NOT removed from the iCloud folder.

I’ve copied folder B to a different location on my iCloud Drive (where it is non-shared) and the behavior indeed changes: removed files then ARE deleted. Is there a difference in behavior between shared and non-shared iCloud folders? Or is something else happening here?

I’ll check this next week.

I’ve tried recreating this behavior by creating a non-shared and a shared folder and the test folders both behave similar, so something else might be happening with the specific folder I’m using. I’ll also investigate further.

Are you indexing the same Finder folder in more than one location in a database or more than one database?

My Dropbox location has now moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. Actually Dropbox re downloads a a new set of data to the new location, leaving the old set in the ~/Dropbox, unused and needs to be deleted. It doesn’t move the old data.

As expected DEVONthink had no connection to the indexed files in the new location. Update indexed files did nothing. I could probably have reindexed the existing Databases, but I felt it was cleaner and simpler just to create new ones and index the new location.

DTTG has synced (Bonjour) with the new Databases, so all seems successful…no drama (touch wood).

NB I forced the Dropbox change by signing out and uninstalling Dropbox, re-installing latest beta and signing in again. It is happening for some people without doing this. I was keen to bite the bullet.

Another possibility is to update the path of the already indexed items via the Path popup menu in the Info inspector. Changing the path of enclosing indexed groups should be sufficient.

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Thanks. I didn’t know about that (obviously!).

This issue is going to arise for everyone indexing Dropbox folders over the next few months…which I think will be quite a large number of users.

The trap is that because the indexed files still exist in the old location, people will not realise anything has happened until they discover syncing has not been happening.

I don’t know what the best way of communicating this to all the people who will be affected, or whether something can be done in the app itself.

I’ve done a little bit of internet searching to find any announcements by Dropbox of changing local folder changes. I’ve not found anything. Do you know of where you noticed that?

I did find How to find the Dropbox folder on a computer | Dropbox Help and it references the folder I’m using under my home folder. I’ve set Dropbox to keep stuff local/offline.

Did you by chance try putting the folder back where it was, and changing the configuration in your Dropbox app to that “old place”?

There are links in the OP of this thread giving background. The change is forced on Onedrive and Dropbox in order to be able to offer online only files. I think what you suggest would be unlikely to work. At best it would prevent online only files (which might not matter to you) and at worst it wouldn’t be sync’d by the Dropbox app. Changing location/path/reindexing is not a big deal.