Moving indexed folder: risk of data loss?

DEVONthink
#1

Hi there!

I know there has been many posts about indexed folder, but I’m not sure I get it right and I would like to avoid any mistake…

In a database called MyDigitalDB, I have an indexed folder called Digital with this path: ~/Documents/Digital. The folder Documents is not indexed.

Now I would like to move the folder Digital to ~/MyDocuments, the new path would therefore be ~/MyDocuments/Digital. The folder MyDocuments is not indexed and the indexed folder Digital should still be in the original database MyDigitalDB

What’s the best way to do this whithout losing any information (tags, flag, annotations…)?

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#2

The best solution is to…

  1. Index the destination folder ~/MyDocuments first
  2. Move the indexed group Digital (~/Documents/Digital) to the indexed group MyDocuments (~/MyDocuments)

This will both move the files/folders in the Finder and update the paths of the indexed items. In addition, this way no information will be lost.

#3

Actually I would like not to index ~/MyDocuments because it has other folders that I don’t want to see in this database.

For instance there is a folder ~/MyDocuments/Marketing that is indexed in another database…

#4

In this case one approach is to create a folder ~/MyIndexedDocuments and use the above procedure but with this folder instead. You could add an alias of ~/MyIndexedDocuments/Digital to ~/MyDocuments afterwards.

#5

I have to move about 10 folders (“Digital”, “Marketing”, etc.) with more than 10’000 files each. At the moment, each of those folders is indexed in a different database.

If I move those 10 indexed folders to ~/MyIndexedDocuments, means above 1 million files, won’t it be too big for DT?

#6

That’s a lot of stuff of course but should be possible. I would suggest to move one folder after another and to wait for all background processes to be finished before continuing with the next folder.

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#7

I’m gonna try, thanks a lot for your help @cgrunenberg!

#8

Hi @cgrunenberg, I am trying to use this solution, but I can’t get it to work. When you say “move the indexed group” in step #2, you mean the group in DEVONthink, correct? If I do that, the group disappears (not even in the trash), and the files are not moved in the Finder.

In summary, these are my steps:

  1. I want to move the folder “currentFolder/toMove” to “newFolder” both in Finder and DEVONthink. The folder toMove is an indexed group in DEVONthink.
  2. I create a new folder: “newFolder”
  3. I index “newFolder” in DEVONthink, creating a new indexed group newFolder
  4. I move the toMove group in DEVONthink to the indexed group newFolder
  5. at this point, the toMove group is gone and the actual files (disappeared from DEVONthink) are still in the “currentFolder” in the Finder.

Am I missing anything?
Thanks!!
Giovanni

#9

Update: I tried a simpler folder (no subfolders etc) and it worked as you described. Perhaps I had issues with the first indexed folder because it was in a DEVONthink group with the same name? (e.g. the “toMove” folder was in a toMove group on DEVONthink).
thanks again
Giovanni

#10

The name shouldn’t cause any issues. Where are the indexed folders located in the filesystem? In addition, please choose Help > Report Bug while pressing the Alt modifier key and send the result to cgrunenberg - at - devon-technologies.com - thanks!

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