I use exactly the same setup; also for the last 2 years. Brother ADS 2800 scans to shared NAS folder (synology). And it was definitely working till mid of August (last accounting session which I remember)… I identified the problem now before I submitted the topic.
I opened one scanned PDF in apple preview. Saved the PDF to disk. Imported (drag and drop) in DT.
Started then an OCR to searchable PDF … the problem remains unchanged. OCR runs recognition, but no PDF+Text file is stored.
Have you quit and relaunched DEVONthink, then checked DEVONthink 3 > Install Add-Ons for an update to the OCR engine?
Yes, I did. I also restarted DT3 and also Mac for several times. I also now firmware updated scanner. But still no change.
the only one additional step is a workaround: Convert scanned PDF to paginated PDF. And as a second step OCR to searchable PDF.
But this is a workaround and not possible in our day 2 day business in the therapy where we use DT3.
was there any change to security of files in the last apple upgrades? I am not in the position to analyze this further. But this would be an explanation why OCR is running and dies in “saving PDF”.
A smart rule could perform this.
It’s an issue of the latest Abbyy engine on M1/M2 computers in case of PDF documents having invalid dates (like the ones created by the Brother software), the next release will include a fix for this.
Great, thank you for your fast support solving this issue. The workaround per smart rule I use since this problem occurred. And so I know that the problem is solved with next Abby-update.
Yes, no update available. Also reinstalled the ABBYY Plugin with no change. Even installed a firmware upgrade on the Brother ADS-2800 W like HerbertHoerner did. No help. It’s frustrating. The Process dies after the OCR, when the status says “saving PDF-document”.
edit: sorry, I’ve just red the lines below now. Waiting for a quick fix now…
Hey Christian,
thanks a lot for your help. I’m using your script to import and ocr the files to DT. Can you add the lines which will force DT to convert to a paginated PDF first and then do the OCR? You would do me a great favor since my apple script skills are a little weak…
– DEVONthink - Import, OCR & Delete.applescript
– Created by Christian Grunenberg on Fri Jun 18 2010.
– Copyright (c) 2010-2017. All rights reserved.
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
try
if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
tell application id “DNtp” to launch
repeat with theItem in added_items
set thePath to theItem as text
if thePath does not end with “.download:” and thePath does not end with “.crdownload:” then
set lastFileSize to 0
set currentFileSize to 1
repeat while lastFileSize ≠ currentFileSize
delay 0.5
set lastFileSize to currentFileSize
set currentFileSize to size of (info for theItem)
end repeat
try
tell application id “DNtp”
set theRecord to ocr file thePath to incoming group
if exists theRecord then tell application “Finder” to delete theItem
end tell
end try
end if
end repeat
end if
end try
end adding folder items to
Folder actions are actually discouraged since version 3, smart rules are recommended instead as they’re much easier to build & maintain without requiring scripting skills. In this case just index the folder, then create smart group limited to the indexed group and which performs its actions On Importing. Finally add the actions
…
- Move into database
- Convert to Paginated PDF
- OCR > Apply
- And optionally Move to move it to the desired group/database
Thank you for your explanations, Christian! I got it to work now, but the original File is not deleted. So afterwards I have 2 Files in DT, one without OCR indexed and on the hard drive, and one with OCR and renamed. How can I tell DT to delete the original file (the import & delete function of the folder script).
Another thing I did not understand was how I can perform actions on Smart Group and what the group is for. I now did it with a smart rule on the indexed folder.
There’s a setting in the OCR tab of the preferences for that.
Thank you for the hint, chrillek. Just checked it and the checkbox is already activated.
I just don’t get it. Why is this so hard? Does not anybody want to import directly from the scanner? And if that does not work, then scan to a folder and automatically import, ocr and delete the original file? Did i miss a part in the handbook? I’m just wondering, because sometimes you just don’t do it the right way, when it is too hard to get it done.
I don’t know, since I tell my scanner to send scans via e-mail. Regardless: You don’t tell what you did to make it (kind of) work, so it’s not possible to tell you what you might possibly change to make it work the way you want.
Which smart group? And what kind of “action” do you want to perform on it?
We don’t know what “it” is. @cgrunenberg suggested that you move the file into DT, convert to paginated PDF, and OCR that. Is that the same as “it”?
In this case it’s just a temporary workaround for an issue caused by Brother scans not conforming to the PDF specification, the next update of the OCR engine will work around this.
I use the same workaround. But this checkbox in OCR to delete the file doesn’t work, because OCR is not creating the duplicate. It as already produced in the step earlier by ‘convert & continue to paginated PDF’. So I am also struggling with deleting the initial PDF. Any good hint how to delete the initial file produced by brother scanner (but within the same smart rule)?
I would have suggested using a Move to Trash action as the second action but @cgrunenberg recently informed me he didn’t think that’s a good idea 
In this case this shouldn’t be an issue.
@HerbertHoerner don’t be confused like me, that the file is still visible in the finder. It will be deleted when the DT Trash is emptied. It will not be deleted right after application of the smart rule.