In DEVONthink, Folders = Groups. Groups/Folders in the Global Inbox (that’s the “Inbox” you’re referring to, since individual databases have their own “Inboxes” as well) are the same as anywhere else in DEVONthink.
The Global Inbox is a database and within DEVONthink, it functions much like any other database. However, the Global Inbox functions in some different ways from user-created databases. It is not transportable† like user-created databases. User-created databases are represented on your computer by a .dtBase2 file. This file can be stored anywhere* including external drives.
In theory you could potentially get away with using only the global inbox as your one and only database but there’s really no benefit to this (I’d argue that if you wanted to attempt a 1-databse workflow you’d be best to create a single user-created database and attempt it that way. But this ultimately gets into an active debate regarding how many databases is appropriate:
Personally, I see the global inbox as simply a staging area – incoming files go to the global inbox so I can capture things throughout the day without having to devote a lot of time to thinking about where it belongs while I’m in the moment. Then I take time to move things to the appropriate database’s inbox, and from there I sort it to the appropriate group (or let the AI sort it for me, depending on the situation).
I generally like to have NOTHING live permanently in the Global Inbox, and this is a strategy too can use regardless of how many databases you use, whether you choose to create only one single database, or many more focused databases.
The advantage to not living entirely in the Global Inbox is that it is relatively easy to duplicate a database and try new organizational schemes out in a non-destructive way, or retrieve a database from a backup should something go awry. While the Global Inbox database is backed up along with the rest of your system (Assuming you have a backup!) it’s nestled way in the library/application support nether regions and is thus bit more cumbersome to track down and restore. A user-created database lives where you want it to.
Hope this helps!
†Not transportable as a database file – it CAN, however, be synced using DEVONthink’s built in sync functionality.
*Except for directly in cloud-synced folders. If you want to sync database contents between computers or with iOS you use the Sync function built into DEVONthink. You cannot sync a database by storing the .dtBase2 file in a cloud folder.
ˆa common workflow for me is to scan a document with my phone using Scanner Pro, and import it into DEVONthink To Go, and in many cases this import process defaults to the global inbox