Is there a way to limit the drives DT Office Pro indexes?

Is there a way to limit the drives DEVONthink Office Pro indexes?

Thanks,

Since the selection of what folders and files to index is an explicit decision, then every time you use File > Index … you are “limiting” DEVONthink to which drive to use. DEVONthink cannot set up indices on its own.

When I tell DEVONthink to index a folder—I do understand that I have to tell it to do so—I get as many as five copies of each folder and file in the folder, usually with each copy indicating a different number of files in the folder.

I think this has something to do with the fact that my files are duplicated in four locations: the drive on my laptop, a usb drive on which I run Time Machine, and two other usb drives on which I’ve set up chained backups using Carbon Copy Cloner—from drive 2 to 3, from the hard drive on the laptop to drive 2.

However, the path associated with each duplicated folder and file is the same for every copy, so I really don’t know what’s going on.

What I do know is that my DEVONthink databases end up being very clutter and it is sometimes confusing.

Thanks,

I understand having multiple copies on multiple drives – that’s a typical set up. I do it myself.

Though, I have never seen indexing one instance in the file system result in all the other instances showing up in DEVONthink. Maybe there’s something going on in the file system with symbolic links between your drives? Or maybe the index was created more than once in DEVONthink? Hard to tell without physically looking at your machine.

I’d suggest an experiment. Make a new database. Close all the other databases. Index a single folder on a single drive – a case where you’ve seen the duplication issue.

What happens if you do that?

Your last post mentioned “as many as five copies” and “four locations”, physically, in the machine, and “each copy indicating a different number of files in the folder” – I would think that if indexing grabbed every copy on every drive, there wouldn’t be disparity such as “different number of files” and there would not be five copies, but four since there are only four drives in play. So, is it possible that all these copies are replicants? Since the path for each copy is always the same, that might strengthen the case for some sort of rogue replication going on in the database. As script run amok, perhaps.

Thanks, korm. That was the problem. I created a new single-folder database. There were no problems. I deleted the problemmatic database, recreated it, and indexed it. No problems with it, either.

Prior to doing this I checked my other databases and none of them had duplicate files and folders. If I’d done that before inquiring here I might of come up with the diagnosis myself. [And I might not have, too. -:wink: ]

I suspect that what happened was that on more than one occasion I indexed the database when I meant to update the indexing.

Thanks for the diagnosis.

Sincerely,

Ta da! :confused: Eric, I’ve done it myself. One on the palm prints on my forehead came from doing the same thing :laughing:

A little reassuring that others do it—but only little.

Nice to see Gandalf and Saruman working together again. 8)

(No offense intended. Just struck me funny how both your avatar’s are awesome shots of elderly gents.)

Yeah, I noticed that, too.

Mine is of an actual person. An actual well-known person—Walt Whitman.

I love his chocolates. (Whitman Sampler’s… bad joke. :unamused: ) Yeah, a classic shot of him.

The full-beardedness of this topic caught my attention, too.

ROFL -nice, sjk