After several years of working on a combination of an iMac and a Macbook pro, I am thinking of consolidating to just a Macbook air. One reason is that I am always finding that key files and documents are not on my portable when I need them, especially bills and other financial documents that I have stored in Devonthink. (please dont mention logmein or such it just doesnt work from developing countries).
I am experimenting with the new sync beta 2. SO far i have been able to sync a small database with Dropbox, but not a largish one (around 500 pdfs). The app crashes befoe a sync is complete.
My database files now residee in my user file on my harddrive. Would it be possible to move them to the cloud? Either drop box or some other cloud? If I only use one computer and there is no chance of opening an open database?
Importantly, since I now want to carry around files with financial information, I feel uncomfortable keeping this info in Dropbox, where it is vulnerable to hacking. Could one put a Devonthink database in a Boxcryptor folder? I guess my other alternative is to carry around a portable harddrive for this.
Since I bought a MacBook Air a few months ago, my Mac Pro sits on the other side of my office blinking at me. Rarely used, and looking lost. The Air is the best computer I have ever owned. Even without a Retina display. (Retina fans will dispute this ) If you get an Air, buy the most tricked-out model you can afford – so you don’t regret not having enough memory, screen, or disk.
You will not be able to successfully use a database stored in any cloud without eventually experiencing corruption or other dysfunction. Dropbox is OK for database sync, but not for regular use. (Some DEVONthink + Dropbox fans will disagree. Search the forum for “Dropbox and database” to read the extensive discussions on this topic.)
Thunderbolt is a great invention. If you get a smaller SSD onboard, then an external Thunderbolt portable drive is a good option. Encrypted folders, or File Vault on your boot drive, are options that DEVONthink works well with. I’ve never seen a post here from anyone discussing Boxcryptor – but it’s for cloud data.
(Just curious, but if Logmein is not an option from “developing countries”, then why would putting your data in a cloud be an option?)
Logmein is not an option from some places because it just doesn’t work when I need it to. I have been trying it for the last three months and it works fine when the two computers are in the same room, but sporadically after that. Its not a matter of net security because I use a VPN to access from abroad.
Since you mentioned boxcryptor in your first post i have been trying it out (10 days). so far, i only use the free version, hence my filenames are not encrypted/changed.
i store 3 databases in a boxcryptor storage directory. works very well. i sync them with both dropbox and spideroak. no problem so far.
thanks for the tip, i haven’t even known boxcryptor existed, although it is exactly what i was looking for.
) If you get an Air, buy the most tricked-out model you can afford – so you don’t regret not having enough memory, screen, or disk.