Is a Synched Database fully copied on the Sync Location?

DEVONthink To Go
1

This may sound obvious, but there is no clear description in the documentation about this, so just checking if this is how things work:

When choosing a Sync Location such as iCloud, Dropbox, WebDav:

  1. The Local Database (on the computer) is uploaded on the remote server (Sync Location)
  2. Then the Sync Location sends the file to the Device (DTTG). The option here is Automatically or On Demand.
  3. And the other way around: from the Device (DTTG) > to Remote Server (Sync Location) > to Computer (DEVONthink)

Assuming we set everything on Automatic, not On Demand, that means that the same space is occupied on 3 Locations.

Let’s say that the Database is 100Mb.
You end up with 100Mb on Local Computer.
100Mb on Remote Server (let’s say iCloud).
100Mb on Device (let’s say iPhone). (Again, unless you choose On Demand, in which case you download only the files you want to open).

Right?

Thing is, I choose iCloud (Cloudkit) as a location, but don’t see any actual location on my iCloud or iCloud Drive. Is the Sync Store invisible on iCloud?

Thanks for probably just confirming these “obvious” questions.

Gian.

2

While not quite true technically, from a practical standpoint, yes you could view the space usage that way.

Our iCloud sync is not stored in some casually accessible location, especially with CloudKit. However, there’s no need for anyone to access the location anyways. There isn’t a “copy of the database” stored in the sync location. It’s raw, chunked, and optionally encrypted sync data, only usable by DEVONthink and DEVONthink To Go.

3

Ok, so the Sync Store is “invisible”, which makes sense, as you say. Thanks for the answer, I appreciate.

4

Well, now I am wondering why if the space usage is as I described, this is not true “technically”. But if it’s too complex to explain, no problem at all. Just curious.

5

As I said previously…

If you had 100MB database, it would be highly unlikely to have the same space consumed by sync in the sync location. Depending on the content in the database, it could be close or it could be more than a bit smaller.

6

Yeah, I see. Thanks.

7

No problem.