I have encountered this error message several times already when opening DTPO 2pb3r2 (OSX10.5.6). I think it appears when starting DTPO right after a machine restart. Clicking on “Ignore” the error, the program runs fine afterwards. Is it because DTPO did not shutdown properly during a machine restart?
John
Usually this message shouldn’t appear as long as databases have been shut down properly, the application didn’t crash, the user didn’t use force quit and the system didn’t freeze/crash.
Please verify your database using Tools > Verify & Repair. In addition, check if there’s a DEVONthink.lock file inside the database package (select it in the Finder and choose Show Package Contents in the contextual menu) after a restart
Ok, I’ve had this problem too. So, what if there is a DEVONthink.lock file inside the database package? Is that good or bad?
Might be an indication that the database wasn’t closed properly or is used by somebody else concurrently. Use Tools > Verify & Repair to check the integrity of the database.
But you could also remove the lock file on your own and/or check its permissions.
I am seeing the same problem. I am trying to share a database (bills) with my wife, who is a registered administrative user on this Mac. The database is stored in Users\Shared. Tools > Verify & Repair shows no errors.
I have read/write access to the file; she has read-only access. We can each log in and open the database file, but when she opens it she can’t make changes or add to it. (So it looks like read-only access, as I would expect.)
If I set her access to read/write, we can each log in and open the database file, but when she opens it she gets the “Database already in use” message. There is no lock file in the file package when she tries it.
Is sharing a database (non-concurrently) between users an allowed usage of the product? If not, it should be. Is this an error happening in the beta version only? Is this a bug?
Providing read & write access for everyone should fix the problem.
That did it. Thanks!
I am having the same problem and verify and repair does not appear to help.
I moved my DT Personal database to my iDisk, and created an alias to the files. The app was closed while I did this, but I now get the “Database is already in use!” error.
I cannot use verify and repair, as it is grayed out.
I’d appreciate any help you guys can offer; I just picked up the 2.0 upgrade, and I’m looking to expand my use to all of my reference documents rather than just web-clippings and PDFs.
Running a database from iDisk is not recommended, as Apple’s implementation of WebDAV is likely to cause errors and database damage, as well as very poor performance.
Yeah, Bill, I think you’re right on the performance end.
Moving it back to the local drive fixed it. I just hate keeping data locally (even backed up with Time Machine), because it’s not offsite. I’ll wait on importing all of my real documents until I bridge that gap.
Do you guys have any plans to implement an easy backup to iDisk option? Ideally, it would need no interaction from me, and it would let me specify a particular iDisk folder.
Thank you for you help.
I recommend offsite backups, although I’m still using physical media. I use Backup Archive (not available for DT Personal) archives saved to DVD discs, in addition to Time Machine.
Automator compatibility is planned for the final release of DT Pro and DT Pro Office 2, which are also highly scriptable, so it should be relatively easy to automate all sorts of actions for those applications.
You can always save a zipped copy of your DEVONthink Personal database folder to iDisk. Caution: Always Quit DEVONthink before doing so, in order to ensure that the copy is complete and doesn’t contain errors.
My databases run to multiple gigabytes sizes, and as I live in a log cabin in the woods, I’m limited to relatively slow satellite broadband. And when it rains, my Internet access drops out. Given those circumstances, I’m still using physical media. 