Based on other tickets I believe this is quite commonly asked question so please bear with me since I couldn’t find the straight answer.
A while ago I created a database, which, I assume, have grown up to the limits set up initially. Whenever I try to put file inside, DevonThink says “Insufficient disk space left on device”. Fair enough, the database was created years ago when I couldn’t possibly anticipate growth to the extend.
The question is - what should I do now? (ideally with step-by-step instructions). I can’t recall is it encrypted database or not. The simplest would be to create new DB and move all the data there, but it’s hell of a work… Hope there are better/easier ways to expand disk space.
Thank you for your time and apologies once again for something that does look like simple silly question.
I haven’t tested this and would ask that you make a backup copy of your database before trying this; I’m also assuming your database is encrypted, because I don’t remember there being a pre-set size for non-encrypted databases. If I am right with that assumption, and you are using the current DT3, then the database will end with dtSparse when closed, and sparseimage when open. The database will need to be open for the following to work (if it works at all):
Item has encryption applied, e.g., encrypted PDFs, and encrypted database, or an encryption key has been specified for a sync location in Preferences > Sync.
There’s a key shown in the UI (not here, because I couldn’t copy it) for encrypted databases.
The thread you quote suggests the database size cannot be changed after the fact for encrypted databases; I think that was once true - but in Big Sur Disk Utility contains a resize function (see my link above). I’ve just tried it on a test database, and it seems to work (very limited test, because I can’t fill it to test real-life behaviour).
(Going through the whole thread, Criss actually mentioned in May that the method I suggest above is possible)
I believe storage encryption and database encryption are different matters. I do have storage encryption key configured, however the storage surely has encrypted and non-encrypted databases.
I’m not sure I understand you - in DT encryption is implemented using standard encrypted disk images. That way database and storage encryption are identical. It is possible you use an additional password for sync, but that is a completely separate business.
I was not talking about encrypting a volume (why would I?) but about encrypted databases. Although @Blanc is of course right: The underlying technique for encrypting databases in DT is volume encryption.
In that case it’s an encrypted database (based on an encrypted disk image). Contrary to regular databases encrypted databases require a maximum size (see New > Encrypted Database…) and there’s probably not enough space left on the encrypted disk image.
The easiest solution is to create another encrypted database and to move everything from the old one into the new one.
It certainly works for me (on Big Sur): I renamed the database test.dtSparse to test.sparseimage, opened Disk Utility, selected Images/Resize, selected test.sparseimage, entered the password, entered the new size. Then renamed the file back to test.dtSparse.
I tried it on Catalina using a new test sparse image instead of an encrypted database. Maybe its volume wasn’t fully unmounted yet as I got an error message but now it seems to work indeed in case of a closed encrypted database. Obviously I never had to resize a sparse image, specifying a huge maximum size does it for me
