When I click to expand a folder in Open Databases, I often go back later to find that the folder is no longer expanded. Even if I expand all the folders I want and save it as a workspace, reloading that workspace does not expand the folders as I saved them.
When I expand a folder, I would like DEVONthink to treat it as a command: “Expand this folder. Keep it expanded until I explicitly collapse it. Do not collapse it for any reason other than my explicit command.”
Is that possible? It’s really making things unusable to have to keep clicking a load of “expand” arrows every time DEVONthink decides it knows better than I do how my folders should be shown…
In the sidebar? Maybe the option to automatically expand/collapse the sidebar is enabled?
It was — but the help says “check this to automatically show the sidebar when revealing an item or opening a group in a new window”, which doesn’t really imply the behaviour I’m seeing. It sounds more like it will show the sidebar if it’s not already shown, not that it will change what’s expanded/collapsed. Perhaps it should be called “automatically expand & collapse groups” (and the help reworded) if that’s what it does?
I’ve turned it off, anyway — I’ll see how things go from here. Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestion!
Unfortunately, it hasn’t helped. I’ve just updated macOS, which involved a reboot.
This is how the sidebar was arranged before the reboot:
…and after the reboot it opened with no windows (most macOS apps restore their previous windows in these circumstances, and I would like DEVONthink to do the same).
After selecting the workgroup from Go > Workgroups, this is what I got. The groups were all collapsed, despite having been expanded when the workgroup was saved:
I’ve expanded all the groups again and updated the workgroup, but I have very little confidence that DEVONthink will actually have remembered the expanded/collapsed state.
Workspaces include only opened windows, tabs & databases but not e.g. List view expansion or columns.
Oh, that’s annoying. Is there any way to save the group expansion state, then?
Even a checkbox that caused all groups to be expanded rather than collapsed by default would work for me, TBH — I’d rather collapse the few I don’t need then have to expand all the ones I do…
No. Did you disable the option to automatically expand/collapse groups in the meantime?
Yes, but it doesn’t seem to have made any difference 
Is DEVONthink supposed to restore its windows after quit/restart? It doesn’t seem to be explicitly overridden:
╰─▷ defaults read com.devon-technologies.think3 ApplePersistenceIgnoreState
2023-11-15 14:28:02.681 defaults[22776:4320852]
The domain/default pair of (com.devon-technologies.think3, ApplePersistenceIgnoreState) does not exist
Is it possible to expand/collapse groups via AppleScript, perhaps? I’ve had a quick look, but can’t find any references to the sidebar in the dictionary, or a window’s open groups.
Is it possible to expand/collapse groups via AppleScript, perhaps?
No. And UI scripting is usually fragile or unreliable.
Rats. (I agree with your comment about UI scripting — I definitely don’t want to even try that!)
Would it be possible to put in a feature request for group expand/collapse status to be saved when closing a database? Alternatively, if “open with all groups expanded” could be added to the Database Properties pane, that would work for my use case…
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