Smart group for duplicates

DEVONthink Automation
1

Is there a way to modify the included script “Find Similar contents” to create a smart group that includes duplicates from the entire database. I want to find and delete any large duplicate files in one action. Thanks.

Gabe

2

Although it should be basically possible to write such a script, it would be too slow for a smart group. But this code might be a starting point:


tell application "DEVONthink Pro"
	set theDuplicates to every content of current database whose number of duplicates is greater than 0
	if (count of theDuplicates) is greater than 0 then
		set theGroup to create record with {name:"Duplicates", type:group}
		repeat with theDuplicate in theDuplicates
			replicate record theDuplicate to theGroup
		end repeat
	end if
end tell

The script replicates every duplicate to a new group called “Duplicates”.

3

Hurray! Not sure that helps Gabe but it certainly helped me isolate an ancient problem. Forgive my writing about it here during this moment of inspiration instead of mailing a support request …

There’s long been a damaged URL item in one of my databases, with a bold blue font claiming to have 2 duplicates in the Show Info window. Running your script replicated that item to the Duplicates group but no other duplicates appear there, at long last confirming my “phantom duplicates” hunch.

I said “damaged” because of those phantom dups plus the URL string became the item’s creation/modification date/time – 03/27/04 17:00:53 – at some unknown point after that.

Database verifications have never noticed anything wrong with that item and I decided to keep it in case deleting it might cause trouble. I can send you a copy of the database (~300K) if you’re interested in examining it. Or, I’d be satisfied just deleting that goofy item if you think that’s safe to do.

Whenever I’ve tried rebuilding the database the before/after values in Database Properties differ too much to trust the rebuilt version. And running “Export > Listing…” from the Script Menu gets stuck (not at the same item each time) before completion so I can’t use its output for before/after comparisons. Let me know if you’d like the database to recreate those two specific issues if not for the phantom item.

Thanks!

4

Please send the database (stuffed or zipped) to cgrunenberg - at - devon-technologies.com. Although this seems to be caused by a minor & old error of the database, at least rebuilding should work.

5

I’ll send you the database as soon as I gather together a few more details. It’s been awhile since I last fussed with this so a few things need updating.