Move .md files to external folder and re-index? will loose all metadata?

DEVONthink
1

Hi all

been using DT for a few years now and love it more then ever :slight_smile:

for a specific DT database (my food recipes .md files) it seems it makes sense to have them outside the main DT database so i can share with family, quick view them in other apps and so on.

i have spent a lot of time rating, and adding metadata within DT to these files. If i as the title says move the .md files to an external folder (dropbox/icloud) and re-index will i loose all the metadata? if not is there a correct way to do so since i don’t want to mess this up?

any other significant cons i should be aware of before i do this?

thx a bunch

Z

2

Yes, if by “move” you mean “export” and afterwards indexing the exported files. This will loose all metadata and the new records will have new UUIDs.

To turn imported records into indexed records:

Not sure whether there’s something special to consider with dropbox/icloud.

Read about indexing in DEVONthink’s help.

1 Like
3

thx @pete31

to be honest not sure 100% i get this

do i need to move the file from the DB to a normal MAC folder? or open a new DB called 'external`, add to that external folders (from dropbox in my case), and move the files there?

Also how does DT plat with indexing files stored on dropbox?

thx again

Z

4

No problem.

  1. create a new subfolder in your Dropbox folder. Let’s call it “My indexed files”

  2. index the “My indexed files” folder into your existing database
    (e.g. via menu File > Index)

  3. move your records into the indexed group

That’s it.

If you don’t know how things work

  • create a test database
  • duplicate some records into it
    Note: do not duplicate indexed records for testing
  • try whatever you like

There’s nothing that can go wrong in a test database as long as you made sure that the records you duplicated are not indexed.

5

@zeltak stop! I never used Dropbox so I’m not sure whether your sync setup is ok. @Blanc, @rmschne, @chrillek could one of you please take a look?

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6

I stopped using Dropbox long ago. Regardless: I’d first try the setup with a small set of records in a local folder. There’s no principal difference between a purely local folder and one that is “on” Dropbox or OneDrive etc. and simply locally mounted. Except, of course, for the obvious pitfalls of synchronization etc.
So, to answer @zeltak 's questions:

First, create duplicates of those records in the database, preferably in a new group for only these files.
Then move them to a new folder on your Mac (no, a MAC is something utterly different :wink: This is described in the documentation, I believe.
Then, index this folder in DT
But this is exactly what @pete31 described already …

Sync is not related to indexing. In any case, I’d rather use Dropbox than iCloud. Or a WebDAV server that I have control over – even better.

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7

@zeltak @pete31

Completely agree with @chrillek. Files “in” Dropbox are in the local file system. Dropbox synching them with it’s own services is purely a Dropbox thing (with DEVONthink kicking it off sometimes). It is indeed the case that quite a few people don’t “get” that.

I index some of my Dropbox files (in ~/Dropbox/[subfolders] routinely no issue. And like @chrillek is preferred to some of the other sync services for which they provide no way to influence when they run.

2 Likes
8

thx guys!

really appreciate the answer. will try to follow @pete31 example now and see if it works on a sample

best

Z

9

I’ve just got out of bed :see_no_evil: But I see all is under control :+1:

1 Like