I am preparing a parent folder of pdfs in readiness for importing into DT3 (official version). Currently the parent folder has dozens of subfolders each containing a few pdfs, including duplicates. I have moved the pdfs out of the subfolders into the parent and deleting duplicates of which there are many. I have deleted the subfolders. On completion, I anticipate approximately 5000 pdfs, sorted abc.
In due course, will be ok to import all pdfs in one go or should I do so a few at a time; and if so then roughly how many at a time? (I am not interested in indexing the files.)
DEVONthink can handle large imports – though of course this can take a while. I think you can safely import the whole parent.
Are you planning to recreate a hierarchy of subfolders (groups) once you have imported the documents into a database? You can, of course, import a parent folder and all of its child folders and their contents will be imported and the hierarchy will be preserved.
“Are you planning to recreate a hierarchy of subfolders (groups) once you have imported the documents into a database?”
No. Population of the source parent folder is ongoing so future imports into DT will follow the same sort order for my ease of reference both in DT and the source folder. I used to move pdfs into their respective sub-folders but found it too time consuming every so often to have to tidy up. By having all the pdfs in the one folder, sort by name, new additions fall into place in both source and DT.
To complement DT’s excellent search, I shall tag each pdf and use smart groups.
PS - source folder currently has just over 8300 pdfs, 2.47GB. (I have several other folders of pdfs, including one with 129,500 pdfs but suspect the latter might be pushing it for DT?)