DT3 3.5.2: Database recovery

Hi – I had an issue with one of my databases this week and am hoping someone can guide me on recovery. I’m using DEVONThink (v 3.5.2) on Mac (OS 10.12.6) and when I opened the database, I got an error message that it needed to be rebuilt, and that a new copy of the database would be made and moved to a new database [as far as I recall the text of the error message]. While it was copying, DEVONthink stopped working and I had to force quit the program. When I reopened it, the database was empty. I tried to repair the database but I only recovered a folder of Orphaned Files - tags intact, but no folders. Is there any way to possibly regain the folder structure that existed before this ‘crash’?

DEVONthink is not responsive while rebuilding and should never be interrupted, at least not without waiting long enough to ensure that it’s not going to become responsive again. This basically broke rebuilding and caused an empty database.

Usually restoring the most recent backup via File > Restore Backup… (visible after pressing the Alt modifier key) would be sufficient to fix this but the attempt to repair the database moved all the files and therefore this would create the old groups but with lots of missing files.

Therefore the best option is probably to restore one of your own backups, e.g. a Time Machine backup.

Thanks! I’ve well and truly learnt my lesson, and will keep this in mind if I ever have an issue like this again.