Html is treated as formatted note in DTTG 4 iOS

DEVONthink To Go
1

I have bunch of html files in DEVONthink To Go 4 that are synced with the Desktop. On iPhone those html files are awkwardly treated and shown as formatted note which is obviously not what I want. They are treated correctly on both iPadOS and MacOS. Below is the information from the same file on different platforms

macOS
macOS540×276 6.91 KB

iPadOS
iPadOS460×360 25.2 KB

iOS
iOS1097×980 77.5 KB

4.0.1 on ipadOS 26.1
4.0.1 on iOS 26.1
4.1.1 on macOS 26.1

1 Like
2

A formatted note is HTML. Why is what you’re seeing

? Is anything not working, or do you just want the document type to be identical in DT and DTTG?

3

And which device did you create or import the document initially?

4

I understand that formatted note is also an html file, but I don’t want it to be edited by accident on iOS as it is treated as a formatted note. My original file is html, recognized as html in both macOS and iPadOS, but it is treated as a formatted note in iOS.

5

It has been created on macOS.

6

After experimenting with the files, I noticed that when I open the previously mishandled HTML file on iOS, the iPad and macOS instances are now treated as formatted notes after a sync.

7

Similar behavior exists in iPadOS.

Summary:

  • view a true html file on Devonthink To Go (iOS/iPadOS)
    • sync (Cloudkit) or LAN)
  • open DEVONthink macOS
    • sync
    • restart
    • file is now shown as a formatted note

Strangely enough, the group has mismatching file types in different DEVONthink instances.

Example group: original 4 html files;

after viewing/syncing:

  • macOS: 3 formatted notes, 1 html
  • iPadOS/ios: 1 formatted note, 3 html
1 Like
8

Here, I see the same issue with WebDAV sync. So, the sync method might not matter.

9

I guess so.

10

Yep, I’ve just stumbled on this one. I may have a simple workaround that suits me and may help others: convert your html files to webarchives. The webarchives behave the same way for me (for my use cases) and DTTG doesn’t change them into formatted notes.

My specific use case is…

I have some html files (created on Mac) with embedded js scripts for some advanced UI behaviours. (The js scripts are also stored / synced within DT / DTTG.)

The contents of the html is actually almost entirely a json object. The embedded js then does a whole bunch of rendering and interaction handling.

When the html is converted into a formatted note…

  1. I can no longer easily edit the json data within DT on Mac. (Formatted notes remove the source mode.) So I need to edit in an external editor. (Yes, I’m hardcore and edit my js without fancy IDE features! There is nothing like debugging js without a console or syntax highlighting or pesky AI bots that know everything!… ok, I admit I don’t do this too often)
  2. If I make any changes to the rendered html (e.g. an accidental key press), the rendered html becomes text in the formatted note and then I get double the output.

Additional note: I just checked and relative links to the embedded js files in the webarchives stay the same too. (I was worried they may get converted, brought into the webarchive or somehow otherwise altered.)

Additional additional note: you can still edit the source of the web archives within Mac DT.

11

This bug is so annoying… You open an HTML file in DTTG4 simply for viewing, without any editing, and it syncs back to your Mac as a formatted note. Nothing changes to the file itself, as verified by MD5, and you can revert it back to HTML using the Convert > To HTML command in DEVONthink for macOS (it will create a HTML copy of file). Seems like this command just unchecks some internal flag in your database. If you regularly view HTML files on your iPhone and also frequently edit their source code on your Mac, this creates an unnecessary reverting chore in order to enable Side-by-Side editing in DEVONthink.

Also, if you add an HTML file to DTTG4 from any source, it will also end up on your Mac as a formatted note, even if you haven’t open it DTTG4 for viewing.

1 Like
A weird way to bypass locked state of items and make edits in them, which also leads to sync stuck until you reopen DTTG4
12

Hi, I made a video demonstrating the mentioned problem:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qhl7epq8cyiuy5swnegoe/DTTG4-converts-HTMLs-to-formatted-notes.mov?rlkey=olksvhn26ft9snteaea43928t&st=y93atdui&dl=0
13

Not visible for me in Firefox. And not even needed anyway since the bug has been confirmed already.

1 Like