Issues with Bonjour sync after SSD crash

DEVONthink
1

Hi,

I’m looking for some insights to my syncing issues:
Recently my internal SSD of my MacBook Air (mid 2013, Big Sur 11.7.10) crashed and my last backup (CCC) was four weeks before. After installing a new SSD I recovered my system (Carbon Copy Cloner via Migration Assistant). Generally everything works fine and the gap of four weeks is not my biggest concern.
However, I bonjour sync my mac with an iPhone XS and an iPad Pro (2021). During the four weeks gap I entered quite a lot of data to my DTTG databases which I hoped to easily sync back to my mac. This works fine with every new data. But I realize that some of the data (from the time gap between crash and restoration) doesn’t sync well.
That means that I find files on my mobile devices that are obviously not recognized by the mac to be missing and therefore to be synced.
My quick fix was to create a new database (named “db-transfer”) and move the according files there and back to the according old database. I (think I) need to do that transfer on all three devices to get in touch with all files. This works.
But, that leads to a lot of duplicates because some files were synced before and others weren’t. It’s a bit painful to sort those duplicates.

Here is my main question at the moment: Is there a way (inside DT) to compare same-named databases on different devices to find out which files still need to be synchronized?

I’m a bit worried to rebuild the databases on my mac, delete the databases on my mobile devices and synchronize again. That should lead to data loss because there are more files on these mobile devices than on my serving mac.

I’m sure that I should have done differently when I restored my mac but I haven’t. Although I’m curious to hear from you how that could have be done better, I’m more interested how I can walk forward with my current status.

Have a great day.
Benj

2

What do you mean by this?

Here is my main question at the moment: Is there a way (inside DT) to compare same-named databases on different devices to find out which files still need to be synchronized?

No.
PS: The name of a database doesn’t matter to sync. Databases with the same name are not necessarily the same database, just as there are many people named John Smith or Jane Miller.

I’m a bit worried to rebuild the databases on my mac, delete the databases on my mobile devices and synchronize again. That should lead to data loss because there are more files on these mobile devices than on my serving mac.

If you mean File > Rebuild Database, that wouldn’t be the next logical step.

But, that leads to a lot of duplicates because some files were synced before and others weren’t. It’s a bit painful to sort those duplicates.

  • “painful” in what way? Do you have Preferences > General > Stricter recognition of duplicates enabled?

Although I’m curious to hear from you how that could have be done better…

Opened a support ticket before created a new database and started shuffling things around.

3

Thanks, for a super fast reply. I forgot about the stricter recognition option. I will try that next. That could in fact reduce the “pain”.

“Not syncing well” meant that there are visible files in certain groups on the mobile devices that don’t sync back to my mac. Like: files A, B, C on my mac and files A, B, C, D, E on my phone. The files D, E don’t seem to be touched by the sync at all any more.

I’m lucky that my four databases are each still below 5 GB/5000 objects so sorting with stricter recognition seems still feasible.

Thanks again for the hint.

4

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

  • What is reported in DEVONthink’s Window > Log?

  • Is there a triangle on the sync icon in DEVONthink To Go’s bottom toolbar? If so, tap it. What is reported?

  • Have you done a verify & repair on the databases on each device?

5

  • Not too many info in the log. I guess I deleted it before.

  • Triangle was there for sure but I don’t remember what it could have said. I’m efficient to make the triangle go away. :wink:

  • verify & repair done on all devices now. Not before except on mac. Didn’t find it for DTTG before.

  • Problem that stays, at least inside my head, is: How can I be sure that everything is on all devices? That’s why I asked before if there is a cross device comparison possible.