Hi all, I just upgraded from an iMac to a MacPro. I have been using DTPO for a couple of years now and find it indispensable. Let me describe an odd situation that has arisen since upgrading to a new computer.
I have always maintained ALL of my databases on an external hard drive so that I could take them with me and access them from my laptop on the road. This has worked flawlessly for nearly 2 years. Everytime I leave my office, I unplug my G-Drive Mini from the Firewire 800 cable and put it in my bag…and then when I fire up my MBP at work, I plug the drive into the MBP and I can access the same databases I use at home.
I just installed DTPO onto a new MacPro and I plugged in the same G-Drive Mini…firstly DTPO on the new MacPro could not open the databases…said theyu were already open. I had to use backups…the copies on the Mini were useless for no apparent reason. But this is fixed…I back up very often.
So, now I am running with the databases on the external as before…the macpro can access them fine. But I noticed that the GLOBAL INBOX is located on the internal hard drive of the MacPro and NOT on the Mini external drive. I have tried copying it to the Mini drive but DTPO just recreates a new GLOBAL INBOX in the same place (internally) when it starts up. This means of course that my GLOBAL INBOX is no longer portable. HELP!! Can someone help me relocate this GLOBAL INBOX to the Mini drive as it was originally??? Thanks in advance.
Unlike the other DT Pro/Office databases, which are placed in a user-selected location, usually the Documents folder, the Global Inbox is located within the user directory at ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink Pro 2/. If it is removed from that location, a new Global Inbox will automatically be created at that locatioin.
The Global Inbox is important as the default location to which new content can be sent by the Sorter, even if the DEVONthink Pro’Office application is not running at the time content was added to the Sorter. It’s also important as a location to which content will be sent when dragged or Saved directly to the “Inbox” place in the Finder.
As you plan to move your databases among computers, I suggest you consider the Clobal Inbox as only a temporary holder for such new content rather than as a database within which content is kept permanently. If you empty the Global Inbox content into your “permanent” database(s), your issue will go away. Consider the Global Inbox as a GTD (Getting Things Done) approach, in which anything filed there is to be moved to another, more appropriate, location (even if only to a database’s Inbox, pending specific group location filing). (Yes, it is possible to relocate the Global Inbox, but that increases the chances of confusion.)
Re the “in use” messages you encountered after copying your databases to the new computer: This message will occur anytime there is either a simultaneous access attempt to open database(s) by more than one copy of a DEVONthink application OR the result of accessing a database that had not been properly closed after the last access, e.g., as the result of a System or application crash, a Force Quit, a forced shutdown of the computer, a power failure, etc.
My guess is that you had done a Finder copy of the database files to the new computer WHILE THEY WERE OPEN. A copy made in that way will result in the “in use” message, and may be incomplete or even damaged. ALWAYS PROPERLY CLOSE a DEVONthink database before making a copy of it in the Finder. To be on the safe side, Quit the DEVONthink application before making the Finder copy.