I’ve noticed that when I have DT running, it sucks up a TON of memory. I have quite a few items (2500+) in my DT database at the moment (all of which are HTML manual pages); could this be some kind of Webcore problem?
I have 1.5G of actual ram, and memory usage (according to MenuMeters) jumps radically when DT is running. When I quit DT, memory usage returns to normal.
This is what top reports. I don’t really understand how to read this, but I’m guessing it may be helpful.
how big are your database files (see folder ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink) after using "Backup & Compress"? And how much memory does DT use right after launching the application (without any open windows)?
It’s 1GB, but there’s backup files in there, too, so the actual database is about half that. I’ve done a couple of backup and optimizes, which don’t seem to make the database any smaller.
The memory suckage only seems to start when I begin browsing the files.
DEVONthink needs lots of caching (due to the nature of the technology which has been developed knowing that 64-bit-computers will be common in the near future) and therefore the memory usage seems to be okay (considering the size of your database).
But it’s difficult to tell without having access to the database - the memory usage depends heavily on the contents (e.g. huge image or RTFD databases don’t need much memory).
The entire database consists of just HTML documents, and jpg and gif images. That’s it.
As I said, it’s when I use DT to "surf" through documents by clicking on links that the memory usage skyrockets, but I can understand that the caching requires a lot of memory.
This kind of sucks, however, because it makes DT (at least this version) kind of useless to keep in the background, which is what I was hoping to do.
My workflow is basically: surf. Find pages that I want to add to the database. Add them to the database. Continue surfing.
Does DT have to be open for me to add something to its database?
(note: email notifications from the forum don’t seem to be working)
Yes, DEVONthink has to be open (as services are just plain XML definitions and OS X calls the approriate application when necessary).
You could try to close all browser windows (or change the preferences so that DT won’t open any window on startup). Without a browser window, new contents are of course not selected or displayed and this might reduce the memory usage.
Would be nice if (eventually) information like that could be stored in a off-forum “FAQ” for convenient reference. People who don’t know the information is already here because they won’t have already seen it are more likely to ask redundant questions.
I’ve started collecting some of my own favorites (in DT ) but a more general version could become a useful resource for other DT users, old and new. It’s quite challenging finding specific information in the forum (especially as it grows) once it’s mixed in with discussions.
I wrote something similar a few months (I’ll find it later) ago and didn’t see any feedback. Would the DEVONtechnology Questions & Answers subforum be the best place for this sort of discussion?
Thanks for the suggestion. We will add a FAQ to the website and/or the manual but there’s currently no timeframe for this (hopefully at the beginning of the second half of 2004).
A test database (around 10.000 HTML files) of the upcoming version 1.7.6 uses a maximum of ca. 200 MB RAM - 1.7.5 needs up to 280 MB for the same files. In addition, one shouldn’t reach maximal memory usage that often using v1.7.6.
) but a more general version could become a useful resource for other DT users, old and new. It’s quite challenging finding specific information in the forum (especially as it grows) once it’s mixed in with discussions.