Idiot's guide to moving Indexed DB?

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hello all,

I’m on the verge of receiving a new Mac, and will be retiring my current ol’ faithful!

After having a look around the forums, think I’m fairly OK with understanding what needs to happen in regard to moving my DBs, and setting things up on the new machine.

Regarding options for indexed files, came across this thread from 2012: [url]How to export indexed database]

I’m a bit hesitant regarding the indexed files, since whereas I think I have a fairly good understanding of the underlying mechanics, it’s not something I want to have proven wrong after I make the switch.

I have several DBs, and all of them – bar one – are 98% import-only/self-contained DBs, where the simple transfer of the .dtBase2 files will presumably do the trick.

That other DB, has in excess of 10,500 files that are indexed, all spread through a variety of folders.

That being said, the good(?) news is that all of those folders are housed within 1 primary “root-level” folder [“Active”], and contains virtually everything I intend to carry over to my new machine. This INCLUDES the locations of those other import-only .dtBase2 files…

Question:

a.) I if copy the entire root-level folder, containing everything that DTPO is indexing, and all the rest, over to the new machine, install DTPO, and then re-open those same DBs - should everything keep working?

b.) How dependent is the indexing on the pathname?

In other words, assume the files are currently in the following key folders, where “Active” is the top-level “root-folder” containing everything:


Goldfish/Users/Owner/Documents/Active/Academics

and


Goldfish/Users/Owner/Documents/Active/Work

On the new machine >> do I need to set everything up as the same?

Put differently, must the Main Drive also be called “Goldfish”, with the folders and sub-folders in place from Active/Work downwards?
Or can I have the following instead: ```

Unicorn/Users/Owner/Documents/Comatose/StillComatose/Active/Academics

and

Unicorn/Users/Owner/Documents/Comatose/StillComatose/Active/Work


So, in the latter examples, the Root "Active" and the associated sub-folders downwards, would be identical to what I currently have on my Mac?

Any guidance would be appreciated!
2

In my experience, no it does not need to be set up 100% the same. I have set up new user accounts on my Mac to test DEVONthink over the years, and I have copied small, indexed databases and documents to the new user accounts and they have worked fine. The only requirement that I am aware of is that the path to the indexed folders and documents must remain identical for everything that follows ~/Users/UserName/ in the path.

So, in my scenario I have indexed document in:


~/Users/MyPrimaryUserAccountName/Documents/some indexed folders...

and I add them to a test users account in the path:


~/Users/MyTestUserAccountName/Documents/some indexed folders...

and the indexed documents appear fine in the database.

Also as a FYI, it makes no difference where the database is located e.g. if it is in ~/Documents in one user account, it can be in /Desktop on another user account and the database will work fine.

3

Thanks for confirming Greg - will make the move way easier!

4

Happy to report that the move went over without a hitch! :smiley:

5

Glad to hear it-thanks for reporting back!