Hi all,
My PDFs are in DEVONthink, but I read them in Skim, where I’ve checked ‘Automatically save Skim notes backups.’ This has lead to my .skim files being stored in a folder called ‘Orphan Files.’ Is this irregular? Or should I just store my .skim files there? Would it be possible to create a new folder named ‘Skim’ and have my .skim files be automatically saved there?
Many thanks for any help. New to this platform and very much appreciating all of the helpful and fast assistance.
Yes, that is irregular. The Skim backups are being saved into the DEVONthink database without DEVONthink’s “knowledge” which is why the files are considered orphans.
This is an old issue with Skim. If you need the Skim backup files, then your best approach is to keep the PDFs that you annotate with Skim in an external folder and index that folder. Skim will put its backup file in the same location as those PDFs, and both files will be indexed. This eliminates the orphan file problem. After you are finished with your annotation, you can import the file and either keep or delete the backup.
(Be careful not to change your annotations with DEVONthink’s annotation tools or other non-Skim editors.)
Got it, many thanks.
So…anything wrong with the status quo (i.e. just leaving the .skim files in the orphan folder or transferring them to a new folder once they arrive there)?
Orphan files should be properly filed into the database structure of groups.
Great, thanks. I think I’ll just create a group for Skim files and transfer them from the orphan group when they come up.
Thank you again everyone!!!
That’s not going to solve the issue – it just creates an repetitive cycle: edit a file with Skim, save the edits, Skim creates a backup, DEVONthink finds an orphan and moves it behind the scenes to where it belongs (which is not in the same behind-the-scenes folder as your PDF**), you edit the file some more, Skim cannot find the backup and creates a new one, DEVONthink finds another orphan and moves it – and on and on.
[size=85]**Not to go into the gory details, which are discussed in detail elsewhere in the forum, but the group hierarchy that you see when you use DEVONthink is not the same as the hierarchy of folders behind the scenes where DEVONthink stores your files. [/size]
Ok, that makes sense, thanks. I think I’ll just turn this skim option off until it’s resolved…
IMO, it’s not something for DEVONtechnologies to “resolve” – the Skim author needs to add a setting for users to specify where backups should be stored, which is the common approach.