Hello there,
after wiping my Macbook, I’m now faced with the following problem:
I used DEVONthink to index a folder that is stored in an business onedrive-location. Now I realize, that the company has changed some preferences, which now has an impact on the onedrive’s folder name. There is no way to rename the folder (as far that I know - unless it quits syncing).
Obviously, DEVONthink now can’t find the indexed files as their location has changed. Is there a way to update the file-locations? I just have to adjust the name of the parent folder… (I used to work a lot with Lightroom, where this problem can be solved with a few clicks - so I didn’t worry about that bevor wiping…). I hope, there is a way.
If not, I’m thinking of making a copy of the onedrive-folder named with the previous name, then exporting all indexed files from DEVONthink, then importing into the new location, which then is resynced to the onedrive-cloud - but I think, this is a very extensive workaround…
Thank you very much in advance!
David
Why don’t you just remove the indexed folder from DEVONthink and add the new (renamed) folder for indexing? Depending on the number of its elements indexing might take a while, but that is done in the background. If you have Smart Rules linked to the old indexed folder (Search in) you would have to re-link them to the new one afterwards.
What do you mean with “exporting all indexed files from DEVONthink”? Indexed files are not in DEVONthink but just indexed.
Wouldn’t I loose all the information, that is stored in my database, e.g. tags, meta-data, etc., if I’d reindex the files?
My thought was: If I export the indexed files (if that is possible at all), then the exported files will be enriched with this metadata. But I now realize, that this is a fallacy… metadata is always written to indexed files, as far as this is supported (finder comments, for example).
So: If there is no way to adjust the folder path, I will be loosing all my tags, right?
You can export indexed files, but when you import them they will remain imported. It will not resolve to another path.
a copy of the onedrive-folder named with the previous name
So you still have the data indexed from the previous OneDrive name?
I have synced the data from the renamed OneDrive (from cloud to local) - but this data is identical to the one from the old-named OneDrive. So I could create a copy of this folder and name it with the “old” OneDrive-folder designation. Then - I suppose - the files will be accessible from DEVONthink, am I right?
Then, I might be able to move it to the new OneDrive-folder…?
If the OneDrive folder has a different name, the files will be missing as DEVONthink uses an absolute path.
Is the data in DEVONthink still indexed from the old OneDrive location?
If so, create a new empty folder in the new OneDrive location and index it into the database.
Then in the Finder, move the contents from the old to the new folder and all should be well in DEVONthink.
Thanks for your help! I now realized, that the “tags” are not stored in the database itself, but in the (macOS-)files(ystem). As OneDrive doesn’t support this, the metadata is not synced to the OneDrive cloud and therefore the only way is to restore a backup of my files.
My previous plan, which was adjusting the folder path to the new OneDrive location, is obsolete.
The caveats of working with indexed data now seem to predominate (for me). I’m obligated in accessing my data from a windows environment and therefore working with indexed data. My spontaneous idea: I need the feature, that DEVONthink continuously exports changes of my database (with imported data) to a folder, which I can access (for read-only purpose) from any other OS. (Or is this realizable with built-in features, that I just have not noticed/understood yet?)
Thank you!
that the “tags” are not stored in the database itself, but in the (macOS filesystem)
Tags are stored in the index of a database but also applied to indexed files. Are you saying OneDrive doesn’t preserve Finder tags??
My spontaneous idea: I need the feature, that DEVONthink continuously exports changes of my database (with imported data) to a folder, which I can access (for read-only purpose) from any other OS. (Or is this realizable with built-in features, that I just have not noticed/understood yet?)
The first thing that comes to mind is running the Server edition of DEVONthink 3 with it’s Web sharing capability, allowing you to broadcast a database on a network for access in a browser.
Beyond that, scripting would be the only other option, even when using a smart rule. However, there is no script built for this and it would not be simply done as it would have to account for already exported files.
I think so! (Sorry, I’m new to macs) This is my observation, that suggests me this behavior:
- on my “old” hdd, DEVONthink was indexing folders, that were stored in an OneDrive-folder. I do have a backup of this folder, too.
- after wiping my mac, I logged into OneDrive and the data synced correctly (from cloud to hdd). I investigated sample files: the ones stored in my backup have tags, but not the ones restored from the OneDrive-cloud.
- I duplicated the OneDrive-folder and renamed the copy after the old OneDrive-location
- DEVONthink now accesses the files. And consequentially: When I select a tagged file within DEVONthink, the file disappears immediately from the tag-list, because DEVONthink rereads the file, which is now non-tagged…
I hope, my remarks are understandable - if not, and desired, I can repeat them in german (I now realized that you speak this language, too. 
The server edition is an interesting option. It does not work for me at the moment, but I will consider it when revising my workflows . Thanks for the tip!
You’re welcome.
Hold the Option key and choose Help > Report bug to start a support ticket. Thanks!
PS: Only a few of us speak German, but we all speak English. 
Sorry - what shall I say in the support ticket?
The observed behavior seems completely reasonable and expectable to me…
Just copy the link to this forum post.