# DT Personal will not open

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848>\
**Category:** Tips\
**Created:** [April 22, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848 "2011-04-22T10:00:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Cynky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/1 "2011-04-22T10:00:36Z")

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My Devonthink Personal will not open today. It only opens the Welcome screen. Tools restore is greyed out.

I’ve emailed support but not expecting a quick reply so thought I would ask here for help. I’ve looked in the Help Files and it says… see below… but I don’t understand where I am supposed to copy the backup to, and what is meant by the top level folder.

I have restarted the computer and installed a fresh .dmg but nothing has changed. This is most frustrating.

Cynthi

"  
DEVONTHINK PERSONAL CRASHES WHEN OPENED  
If a database is heavily damaged it can happen that DEVONthink Personal crashed  
when opening the database or when starting up. In this case you cannot use the  
build-in mechanisms for recovering your data. But you can go back to one of the  
internal backups manually. With its factory setting, DEVONthink Personal keeps up  
to two copies of the index files in case that the index is damaged beyond repair. You  
can change when and how many internal backups DEVONthink Personal keeps in  
the Preferences, Backup tab.  
To revert to one of the internal backups, quit DEVONthink Personal, then locate the  
database folder (~/Application Support/DEVONthink 2) in the Finder. Inside you will  
find one or more folders named ‘Backup(.x)’. They contain copies of the index files  
(named ‘\*.dtMeta’). To manually revert to one of the backups, copy the content of  
the backup folder (means: all ‘.dtMeta’ files) to the top level of the database folder,  
replacing the existing, defective files."

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:22am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/2 "2011-04-22T10:22:09Z")

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> [@Cynky](#):
>
> My Devonthink Personal will not open today. It only opens the Welcome screen. Tools restore is greyed out.

Do you still use the trial? Then you could request a demo license in case that you’re running out of trial time.

If that’s not the case - has been anything logged to the system console (see Applications \> Utilites \> Console.app), is the database marked as read-only in File \> Database Properties?

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**Author:** ![Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Cynky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:35am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/3 "2011-04-22T10:35:29Z")

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No, my DTP is registered.

I’ve looked where you mention, but when I go to File there is no Database Properties This is after going to…

If that’s not the case - has been anything logged to the system console (see Applications \> Utilites \> Console.app), is the database marked as read-only in File \> Database Properties?

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/4 "2011-04-22T10:37:40Z")

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> [@Cynky](#):
>
> I’ve looked where you mention, but when I go to File there is no Database Properties This is after going to…

There’s no such menu item or it’s not enabled? Anything in the console after launching DEVONthink?

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**Author:** ![Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Cynky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/5 "2011-04-22T10:46:28Z")

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22/04/2011 11:41:19 Help Viewer[1335] Error trying to read /Users/Cynthia/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui/Console Help/ConsoleHelp.helpindex.temporary: \*\*\* -initForReadingWithData: nil argument

The above is what it says in the console.

It says the above.

There is Database Properties under the File Menu of DT, but it is greyed out.

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:59am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/6 "2011-04-22T10:59:34Z")

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Is the menu item DEVONthink \> License… enabled and is there a valid license? Or are you able to launch DEVONthink successfully after renaming the folder ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink 2?

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**Author:** ![Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Cynky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/7 "2011-04-22T11:08:54Z")

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Yes just checked my licence is enabled.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/8 "2011-04-22T11:10:14Z")

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Did you try to rename the folder? You could also try to delete the preferences (~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think2.plist) while DEVONthink isn’t running.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cynky](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Cynky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 11:22am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/9 "2011-04-22T11:22:08Z")

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No I didn’ t try to rename the folder, as you said is it licenced OR do this, so when it was licenced I just let you know.

Anyway SUCCESS I moved ~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think2.plis to Trash and its working again.

Thank you so much for all your help. I really appreciate it, as I think DT is good.

Cynthia

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**Author:** ![system](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/2X/4/4e6ff70c96be2eb307a274d890bba8d71ba671b3.png) [@system](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 11:12am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/dt-personal-will-not-open/11848/10 "2022-01-21T11:12:08Z")

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