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

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.

Did you change the path per Criss’ suggestion?

No it was too late by then, I had already created new Databases indexing the new location.

Gotcha.

PS:

:smiley:

Thanks for the link Jim. I will use that next time if there is one!

Maybe it is just me, but I find the title of that article a bit misleading. The process described does not “Relocate the Indexed files”. I would describe it as “Reconnecting to indexed files” after they have already been relocated by an outside factor, as in this case.

Thanks and your suggestion is noted.