I read somewhere that you recommend no more than 100,000 records per database. I have one database with 266,000 records (I see it when I import). And I have another that may be even bigger. Where do I find the number of records in a database? Do you recommend splitting databases up if they get too big? Does the program search across multiple databases? What is the proper method for splitting databases?
Thank you!
I think these are still relevant. They are found in the “Tips” section of the forum.
https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/devonthink-database-size/17790
https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tips-for-splitting-a-database/8723
File > Database Properties has the information about the contents and size of a database.
100,000 items is comfortable but can be exceeded. Here is my treatise on database size…
Size in gigabytes isn’t the critical number. If you check out File > Database Properties > … for a given database, the number of words / unique words are more critical. On a modern machine with 8GB+ RAM, a comfortable top limit is 200,000,000 words and 4,000,000 unique words in a database. (Note: This does not scale in a linear way, so a machine with 16GB wouldn’t necessarily have a comfortable limit of 400,000,000 words / 8,000,000 unique words.) So text content in a database is far more important.
If you have a database of images, it will have very few words but be large in gigabytes.
If you have a database of emails, it will have many words, but may be smaller in gigabytes.
The second one may perform more poorly as the number of words increases beyond the comfortable limit.
Smaller, more focused databases will generally perform better, Sync faster, and be more data-safe in the event of a catastrophe (avoiding the “all your eggs in one basket” problem).
They also give you the opportunity to close unused databases when you’re not using them. This frees up resources, not only for DEVONthink, but the rest of the system. There is no benefit to having a bunch of unused databases open all the time.
Also, you should not just dump data into DEVONthink. Consider what you add to DEVONthink carefully. Read this:
Thank you. This is very helpful.
You’re welcome 
