In DTTG, I have a database that I want downloaded on my devices with the exception of one folder. The problem I am having (which may just be expected behavior) is that when I set the database to “always” then change the one folder to “on demand”, DTTG insists on still downloading the folder set to “on demand”. If I purge the folder, DTTG will download the folder again.
Is this expected behavior? Do I have to individually select folders/files I want to download instead of deselecting (“on demand”) folders/files I don’t want downloaded?
Yes, the setting of the database has a higher priority than that of the group. Make the database download on demand and then set all the groups on the top level of the database to always that should download always.
Thanks that is helpful! Does the higher priority apply to groups as well? The group/folder that I am excluding is nested in another group? Or does the higher priority only apply on the database level?
You already got your answer. But: If you open the manual and search for “on demand”, it is quick and easy to find this information. I don’t say this to rub it in or nag – but rather to encourage you to make use of the fantastic resource that the manual is! Instead of waiting for other people to reply, I personally always prefer to check the manual first.
p. 40, Sync > Everything or Just the Metadata > Granularity (emphasis added):
Group: Navigate to the group, then tap the button to open the Info popover. Set any group to a full sync in a shallowly synced database. This can be useful if there are groups you need to contents to always be synced while other groups can be downloaded as needed. This requires the database to also be set to On demand.
p. 20, Manage Items > Get Information About An Item > Change The Download Files Option:
If you are not downloading files for a whole sync location you can make sure that selected groups and the items they contain will be downloaded regardless of the sync location’s setting. Choose Always to keep the group content’s files downloaded at any time or On demand to download them on demand. Tap the selected option again to unselect it; the group will use the setting from its enclosing group.
Note: This setting is either explicitly set for a group or, when not set, the enclosing group’s setting is used. In this case none of the two options is selected.
Thanks again. But this does not seem to working for me.
I have tested on two different devices:
set the database to “on demand”
set parent group to “always”
set sub group to “on demand”
purged sub group
downloaded files are removed (“Downloaded” content decreases appropriately)
on next sync DTTG redownloads the files in the sub group
I guess I will try without setting the parent group to “on demand”. It would be helpful if the GUI would not allow you to set a setting (e.g. set something as “on demand”) that’s overridden by something else.
Why would you set the parent to always then expect a subgroup to use on demand ? Always, means always download the contents of this group. If you don’t want all the contents downloaded, you should be setting it to On demand then setting its contents to whatever suits the situation.
It would make the process far easier and quicker . . . now I have to set the parent group to “on demand” . . . and go through and select everything except for one group as “always” . . . and this has to be done individually. And to make matters worse new files (or groups) I place in the parent group will not download without having to manually make the change. Also, this behavior is not made clear in the app. Given how it seems DTTG works . . . I should not be able to set a group as “on demand” nested in an “always” group.
This is also how other cloud applications work (e.g. Dropbox). I can tell it to “make availble offline” a folder and then select a sub folder to “make online-only”.
If you have a group containing many sub-groups – where you want most of them to download Always, with just few exceptions – it would indeed be much quicker to change the setting on the few exceptions than the reverse.
This scenario hasn’t come up for me, so I didn’t know. I get the logic now that I’m aware, but from the descriptions in the manual it was not obvious to me that you can’t make exceptions for sub-groups when the parent is set to Always.
@sacoward Unless/until this changes I would probably reorganize my files – or live with the effort in setting it up to my preferences. You can quickly group your different sub-groups in two new groups: “Always downloaded” and “On demand”, even if it’s not pretty… Or you can move the few exceptions somewhere else. Or you can consider making a smaller “working” database mainly for syncing, where you just sync everything – I know some people do this to avoid any hassle.
Instead of waiting for other people to reply, I personally always prefer to check the manual first.