New to devonthink, not very computer literate, but absolutely loving the platform for my research needs.
However, when I move or upload PDFs from my database via Finder or Spotlight (on my Mac) they are showing up as .dt2 files. So, if I email a devonthink file to someone and locate it via Spotlight or Finder, it sends as a .dt2 file with a random title (for example: B4582F53-74F8-4BB8-94C7-B093A6024945.dt2), rather than the properly titled PDF I intended to send. Can this be resolved, and if so, can someone explain how to do so?
You shouldn’t use Spotlight results for sending files. You should select the item in Spotlight’s results and it will show in DEVONthink. You can then drag and drop from DEVONthink, or right-click and choose Send by Email to send a file.
You should NOT move files from your database in this way. To do so will cause internal inconsistencies in the database. You should pretty much stay out of the internals of your databases and do all the file handling inside DEVONthink.
When you have configured a database using File > Database Properties to “Create Spotlight Index” (see image, below), DEVONthink creates a series of small files with names such as the one you mentioned. These are kept in Spotlight’s metadata cache. These files enable the ability to search for DEVONthink database documents with Spotlight. As Jim mentioned, they are not your data – they can be clicked to open the original file in your database.