OCR to searchable PDF does not work

DEVONthink
21

The log is reporting a miscellaneous error when trying to start the OCR, could you try the following:

  • Quit DEVONthink
  • In Finder select the menu Go->Go to Folder, copy and paste the line below and press Go.
    ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink 3/Abbyy
  • Double click on the DTOCRHelper application to start it, note this application does not have a user interface.
  • If there isn’t an error on launching , try opening DEVONthink and OCR a document
2 Likes
22

Yup,

That fixed it. I think I know what the problem was.
The DTOCRHelper does not work with M1.
When I double-clicked on the app, I got a message from MacOS indicating that I needed to download and install Rosetta to run the application.

I did not have Rosseta in my Mac because all my applications are M1 compatible, or so I thought…

After installing Rosetta, I launched Devonbthink, and I was able to OCR my pdf file.

My next question is:
is there a way DEVONthink can use the M1 version of the OCR library?

1 Like
23

ABBYY are in the process of developing an Apple Silicon version of their OCR library, until that update is released it has to be run under Rosetta. They haven’t announced any release releases dates so I am unable to give you any timeframe for it to be a fully native Apple Silicon application.

24

Thanks for following this through - that will add to my repertoire of questions to ask users with similar problems :slight_smile:

If you haven’t already done so, please remember to remove Full Disk Access from DTOCRHelper, as it probably isn’t required.

25

I already did

Thank you

26

Full Disk Access is only usually required when using a ScanSnap scanner with certain configurations of Scansnap Home or ScanSnap Manager.

1 Like
27

If you have a brand new MacBook Pro 2021 beast, and it is just installed and haven’t installed any other Intel-only app, DTOCRHelper will fail because lack of Rosetta 2. Once manually run for first time DTOCRHelper and asked for installation of Rossetta, it went flawlessly.

28

I installed Devonthink PRO on my new M1 mac, the OCR addon was downloaded and installed but there is no option to made a OCR of PDF in right click menu

DTOCRHelper doesnt throw any error, I have other Rosetta apps

EDIT: Solved! Search view doesnt offer OCR unfortuantely

29

I have the same issue. How did you install Rosetta?

30

I don’t have any experience with Rosetta, but does this Apple article help: If you need to install Rosetta on your Mac – Apple Support (UK)

1 Like