No sync (Mac, ipad, iphone)

Hi,

Ive had my Macbook (dt3) iPhone and iPad synced over Dropbox for a long time with no issues. Today my devices arent syncing anymore (Bonjour is working though. So this is about troubleshooting dropbox.)

Strange thing is, when I make some random change to a document on either device, updates are being recorded in my dropbox across all devices. Ie. if a markup some pdf on my Mac, i will see an update in my dropbox-foldes on my iPad and iPhone. But the markup will not show on those devices respective documents (unless I turn on Bonjour).

Its the same the other way around: If i highlight some word on my iPad, there will be a change in my dropboxfolder on my Mac — but nothing will happen in DT3, in the same document.

In the sync-settings, there are no errormessages and all devices show “up to date” statuses. So what could be wrong, and how do I troubleshoot something like this? Again: Ive had no problems until today, and have been really impressed by and happy with my DT+Db workflow. Now im sort of frustrated :sweat_smile:

(BTW: Ive never used any other sync-method than Dropbox until today. So im not sure if its hazardous to use Bonjour+Dropbox at the same time — I just had to try it as it was the only thing I could think of that could help troubleshoot.)

Say I want to reset the entire dropbox-sync-setup: How would I go about doing that? Can I turn off and delete the “Location” on my Mac + Db without hurting the database itself? And perhaps delete DTTG on my devices, reinstall the apps and resync?

On looking at what is actually being synced to my dropbox, it seems it is only uploading an .item file which is not representative of the changes made. Say I put a 6mb pdf in my inbox on my iPad, then the changes made in dropbox is just a 500kb .item file. What does this mean? Where and how are the actual files synced?

This might be a temporary issue of the Dropbox servers. Are you able to verify the sync store successfully (see e.g. contextual menu in Preferences > Sync)?

Yes, Ive verified (and verified “thoroughly”) on all my devices successfully.

How can this be a dropbox server-issue, if dropbox is working with other files? Is DT working with dropbox in a special way, behind the scenes?

DEVONthink doesn’t use the Dropbox.app (and ideally the folder ~/Dropbox/Apps/DEVONthink Packet Sync should be excluded in the preferences of the Dropbox.app). Otherwise the Dropbox.app will only slow down the sync of DEVONthink and waste disk space. DEVONthink uses the servers directly by using the third-party API of Dropbox.

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Ah, that clears things up. This means troubleshooting dropbox is sort of out of my control? There is no way for me to see what is actually being synced or not (except .receipt/.item-files, which I have no clue what is as I cannot find any documentation explaining it…?)

I guess I just have to wait, then? I have a support ticket as well, btw. Thanks for your reply.

So what you are saying is that I should untick this:

?

Also this keeps happening: Database options are greyed out until I restart DT3. Is this normal?

Exactly.

These options are disabled while a database is synchronized.