I did not. I just let it sit for a couple hours and the mobile documents folder size went from 100 + GB down to 30 GB. Also, the free space on my hard drive on my laptop went from 0 to about 70 GB.
Does that size for the mobile documents folder make sense? I am still a bit confused by this. I have a few different pictures in my head of how this is working but I am getting results back that do not match up perfectly with these pictures.
Hopefully, I can better describe my situation and formulate my question clearly to help with my confusion.
Goals
I am trying to index 100 + GB of video so I can store the files on an external hard drive and not take up all that space on my laptop. I would like the file’s metadata to come up in a DEVONthink search if it is pertinent to my topic I am searching for. I would then expect I would need to connect my external hard drive if I want to view/download an indexed video.
I would like to be able to have the same indexed file’s metadata come up in a search on my phone that is synced via iCloud. I didn’t anticipate being able to simply download these files on demand. I figured I may be able to if my external hard drive was connected to my laptop, though, I wasn’t sure if it works this way with an external hard drive. If there is a way to download these on demand without having to store the 100 + GB of files on my laptop, great! If not, it is not a deal breaker to only be able to view the metadata.
Point of Confusion
I am getting very confused right now by the fact that I can only view/download the indexed videos on my laptop if the external hard drive is connected (this part makes sense) but I am somehow able to download one of these videos on my phone without the external hard drive connected to my computer. On my laptop, the indexed video file says “Volume not mounted” and then shows the path to the video. On my phone, when I clicked download file, it downloaded it somehow. Not all of the files that I indexed will download on my phone, though. Just a few of them have so far.
Here are the ways that I have understood what may be happening, but I am not sure which (if any) is correct.
Scenario #1
Indexed file contents are stored in full in the mobile documents folder.
From your responses to my support email I took it to be that the mobile documents folder would contain the actual file contents of the files that you have indexed so that you can download them on demand from other synced devices (if you set it up this way as opposed to unchecking the Synchronize contents of indexed items). If this is this the case, should my mobile documents folder be at least as big as the files I indexed (100 + GB)?
If this is the way that sync works with indexed files, is it possible that iCloud or my laptop realized I didn’t have enough room to store all the data in my mobile documents folder and it just stopped uploading all the file contents? I can see the indexed folders and metadata on my phone, though.
Also, why are these files available to download on my phone on demand but not on my computer?
Scenario #2
The same metadata only (not full file content) is stored in the mobile documents folder for indexed files that are stored locally in the database file.
This is how I anticipated indexing and syncing to work. I figured just references/links to the location of the files would be in the database and sync locations with the ability to download them on demand. In my particular case, since my files are on an external hard drive, I also expected they will not be available to download on my phone unless that external hard drive is connected to my laptop.
If this scenario is correct, given my indexed file size total of 100+ GB, would a 30 GB mobile documents folder size make sense? Also, why can I download only some of the videos on demand on my phone?
Again, I just can’t make sense of what is hapenning given the results I am seeing above. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated!
