I have set up a watched folder using services as described. It imports to the inbox for all of my pdf files just fine and works as expected. However when I place a word.docx file in the folder it doesn’t import it, the file just remains in the folder. I can’t find what I’ve done wrong so that it doesn’t import. I’m new to DEVONthink 4 and sometimes feel overwhelmed with all of the options but I’ve can’t seem to find what is wrong.
Welcome to the DEVONthink forum.
What version of DEVONthink and macOS are you running?
When you say “watched” folder, do you mean the Global Inbox folder which is indeed “watched” by DEVONthink, and if so what is the full path to that folder (just to check that you are in the right place). Or is some other process “watching”?
I suppose they mean a script attached to a folder. But in any case it would be helpful to tell us what they are doing exactly.
That doesn’t tell us anything: Who described what and where? And it leaves open the question of why you don’t simply add your files directly to the global inbox instead of taking the detour of a folder from which you then move them to DT.
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What I was doing: Had a folder called “Scanned for Devonthink”. where I placed pdf files scanned from a Snapscan scanner. By and I could add any other pdfs that I received via email or that I did a print to pdf. I’ve been basically paperless for a few years. Devonthink has a service (described in the Take Control of Devonthink” that when attached to the file folder ““Scanned for Devonthink”. moved the file to the Global inbox and deleted the file from the “Scanned for Devonthink” folder. And it also moved any other file type a word doc, pages, excel etc as well. In the past few weeks I noticed that it quit moving anything other than a pdf file. Just a little annoying but I move the files manually as you suggested above. I use DT for all of my archival and current work storage and some days I can have 10-15 pdfs and 4-10 word docs to move. Just easier for me to just save to the “Scanned to Devonthink” folder then to move them manually. Since the comments to my inquiry were not as helpful as I would have hoped, I then looked to an AI assistant and got my answer quickly. Lesson learned AI is much faster then posting to the lively community board. I was able to remove the service from the “Scanned for Devonthink” folder and then re-add the service and it worked. To check you services you only need to right click on the folder. You then get the list of items and at the bottom of the list is “Services”. Select “Services” then “Folder Actions Setup”, you then get a dialogue for you files and you can remove the service “Add to Devonthink” from the folder and then re-add the service “Devonthink Import and Delete”, I think the box that comes up should be self-explanatory. After that, it all worked. Don’t know what caused the issue. I had previously gone in and just selected “Services” then Add to Devonthink. But with Dt 4.n and MacOS 26 something got broken in my set up. Don’t know what it was and I’m not going to spend anymore time on the issue since I was able to go in and restablish the service and it works just fine now. Hope this helps explain further what I was attemping to accomplish and it fits with my workflows. Thanks for your comments and next time I have an issue I’ll just use AI,
It sure helps if you describe the issue clearly and with enough detail for other people to respond meaningfully.
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I got it. It was my first venture into the site and I didn’t know how much info should be given or if folks that were knowledgable would understand. If I do attempt the site again I’ll be sure to give a complete description of what I was doing and what I expected the outcome to the process that I was attempting.
Welcome a second time @darrelford
Thanks for the clarification on this issue.
- Have you ensured DEVONthink has Full Disk Access and its Automation requests enabled in System Settings > Privacy & Security?
- In DEVONthink, have you opened DEVONthink > Install Add-Ons, to see if Additional Scripts is installed?
Just a note: This is not a good idea, if you 're referring to e.g., using ChatGPT on the web. We already get reports of chat services provided poor, inaccurate, and even hallucinatory responses to questions about “How do I do this in DEVONthink?” You can ask here, our support ticket system, or use the Help Assistant in DEVONthink’s built-in Help viewer.
Thanks for the info. Yep, I had already checked for Ful Disk Access and to make sure Automation was set for File Access. All of the Add-ons were installed. I just think something unseen by me got messed up with the upgrades for MacOS 26 and DT 4.n. Once I reset the Services on the File Folder it all worked again. ChatGPT does give poor and inaccurate responses to specific software packages, the one that seems to be helpful and at least tell you where to go searching is just the Google Search AI, it seemed to be the best here. I’m just an old guy 74, that still does some stuff with computers, (retired 45 years in IT, started with punch cards and wiring boards for collators.
And thanks again I hope the question wasn’t just an ID-10-T error.
Glad to hear it’s working again!
Hahaha! Not at all.
started with punch cards
I was just talking to someone about punchcards! Punchcards and COBOL, specifically. 