I recently acquired a new M2Max MacBookPro.
It will have the second seat of DT Pro on it…
I followed the guidelines in the blog for migrating all the databases and Global Inbox over to the new Mac.Copied all the App Support and Prefs folders.
Almost everything is working very well.
One tiny thing:
In some of my databases I have an indexed folder with a smart rule for importing anything that is placed there into the inbox of that database, some having further smart rules for other processes.
The indexed folders are in Dropbox. (why? - I am frequently working on other systems that aren’t my own and I have set up invite-to-upload links to those folders so I can easily upload docs to them wherever I am and know they’ll end up in DT when I get back to it).
So now, with two seats of DT connected to the same dropbox account and everything else being equal, I should be able to have both seats of DT index the same folders on Dropbox and run the same smart rule on them, right?
This is where the semantics of indexing gets a little hazy for me.
On the new installation of DT do I have to do anything to point it at the folder in the finder?
When I “reveal file” it finds the correct folder in the finder.
Congrats on the new Mac!
I should be able to have both seats of DT index the same folders on Dropbox and run the same smart rule on them, right?
Correct but you shouldn’t even need to do anything to make this happen.
On the new installation of DT do I have to do anything to point it at the folder in the finder?
No.
As long as the Dropbox folder is in the same relative location on both machines, you should see no interruption on the new Mac. As long as the old Mac isn’t running Big Sur IIRC or earlier, things should just work.
There might be a file path issue as the system drives and main user on both computers have different names. Not sure if that would be an issue.
As I mentioned, in the same relative location on both machines so the machine / account name doesn’t matter.
~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox is the same on Mac A and Mac B.
In nerdspeak, the tilde (~) represents the home directory of the active account regardless of what the account name is.
2 things that were holding things up:
- F__king Dropbox settings. So many ways for a file to look like it’s on your system but not be. Select folder in Selective Sync prefs setting, click the cloud, cloud goes away, right click on the file, see option for “make available offline”, click that, get a green checkmark, OKAY DROPBOX, IS THE FILE ON THE COMPUTER NOW??
- Had to force the folders to “update indexed items”. Not something I remember having to do on the older laptop.
Some things with DT I set up a while ago and they just work, because, well DevonThink. I’ll have to revisit the particular settings and remind myself why/how I did it that way. This is a good situation because the old computer (2015 MBP intel) is still working well, and will for a while, just maybe not for video and audio editing. But I can check all the settings and make sure the new one is set up similarly.
And yes, I don’t use any migrate/import from the old computer. It’s all a clean install of all apps onto the new laptop and then copying the 3Ds (desktop, documents, downloads) and syncing the clouds (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, One Drive).