HELP: Most docs missing after upgrade to DT Pro Office

DEVONthink Tips
1

OH NO.
Last night I upgraded fr Personal to DT Pro Office. When I opened my old database in the new program, everything LOOKED fine, with all groups and files present. This morning, when I tried to actually ACCESS those files, most (but not all) came up with a “file missing” message.
I pray someone can help me (luckily, I did a back up to Time Machine just before making the upgrade, so I shouldn’t have actually LOST any data – but not sure what to do next about DT.)

2

Could you please post the path of such a missing file or a screenshot of the error message? Thanks!

3

OK, I’ve attached a screen grab of the message.
Thanks!

missing file message.png
missing file message.png767×296 11.7 KB

4

Thanks for the path which seems to be correct. But it’s strange that only some files are missing. Anyway, you could open DEVONthink Personal, select all items, choose File > Export > Files & Folders…, quit DEVONthink Personal, launch DEVONthink Pro Office, create a new database and use File > Import > Files & Folders…

5

Thank you, Christian – but won’t exporting and then importing all the files in a big database take a VERY long time, and be rather risky?
Is there nothing I can do to try re-accessing the database file that should be on my computer, anyway? (Here’s something that seemed strange to me: When I went to “open database” in Pro Office, it took me to a file called “DEVONthink 2.dtBase2” that was in the “Documents” folder on my Mac – but I thought that DT databases lived in the “Library” folder under “application support” for Devonthink? Could that be my problem?)

6

Just tried to export my files from DT Personal to DT ProOffice … and Personal is no longer being recognized as a licensed version, and when I click out of the registration window to the program itself, it doesn’t show any of the data from my database, and won’t let me open a new database window.
So now I’m REALLY stuck…

7

Assuming that you were using DEVONthink Personal 2.x, and now wish to capture your old data as a DEVONthink Pro 2.x database, try this:

  1. Your Personal database is the folder named DEVONthink 2, and it is located within your user account Library with the address ~/Library/Application Support/.

Apple has hidden your user account Library folder. To make it visible so that you can navigate within it, go to the Finder and choose the Go menu button, then choose the option Go to Folder. Enter this string in the query field: “~/Library” (without the quotation marks). Now you should see your user Library folder. Navigate to and select the folder named DEVONthink 2.

  1. Let’s make a backup copy of that database folder. Select it and Control-click on it, then choose the contextual menu option to compress it. That will create s zipped copy of the folder.

  2. Select the original DEVONthink 2 folder and press Command-I to open its Info panel. Rename it if you wish. For illustration, let’s call it Harry. Now rename it by adding the filetype extension “.dtBase2” (without the quotation marks). Close the Info panel. You now have a DEVONthink Pro database named Harry.dtBase2, and it’s now a package file, not a folder.

  3. Move Harry.dtBase2 to your Documents folder, where DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office database are normally saved.

  4. From DEVONthink Pro, open the Harry database. Run Tools > Verify & Repair to check for errors, and take appropriate action if errors are found, such as re-filing any Orphan files or performing Tools > Rebuild Database.

8

Brilliant, Bill. Took a while, but worked.
You’ve saved my bacon…

Blake