To use the “sorter” (menu bar icon) DTP 3 needs to be running in the background. What is the risk of having it running in the background all the time (while macbook goes to sleep, out of battery etc). Is there a higher risk of data loss? I am always afraid of it… therefore with DT2 having it open only when really working within DT I have felt on the saver side… maybe @cgrunenberg can comment on this? was it a technical decision, to remove the sorter as a standalone importer?
As long as nothing’s going on (no changes pulled in via sync, no scheduled smart rules or scripts or reminders, no feeds updated) the risk isn’t higher actually. In case of a crash or power outage you would have to open the databases again and confirm an alert, that’s all usually. But only a solid & tested backup strategy eliminates the remaining small risk of course (especially but not only recommended while running betas)
I’m not a big sorter user, so this might be off. But perhaps you could recreate a “stand alone” sorter by making a folder or set of folders and attaching one of DevonThinks folder action scripts. You need to configure a folder action in macOS through the services menu.
I’m not sure how the script behaves if DevonThink is not loaded though.
A folder action targeting DEVONthink would launch it when the FA is triggered.
That’s why I would recommend indexed folders and smart rules processing the data in the folders.