That’s a fair point. In fact, I hope that it will still be done that way. At some point after the release of Mountain Lion I’d like to see iCloud sync.
Tom S.
I strongly agree with this, get direct multiple synching working now, add the dropbox and WebDAV later as you finish the additional coding. We need the various features now such as sync across multiple machines easily and getting rid of the sync group mess. Getting just that working across wifi now would be a great start.
Any reasonable (!) comment of Devon on this customer doubts?
Or are they not taken serious?
If my customers would be that dissatisfied I would straight sit down and think it over.
Last, but not least: We all have parts of your next salary in our wallets.
Currently I would not get It managed to get it out of there to buy additional licenses w/o syncing…
Dietmar
PS: No smiley, since currently there is no reason to smile…
iCloud sync may never be possible as it’s optimized for single files, not databases. Apple even splits e.g. the address book or your calendars into thousands of small files. But we’ll look very closely into it.
With iCloud Apple has simply overtaken us: when we started to develop the sync technology there was MobileMe with the iDisk. And so we worked on WebDAV. As small developers like us it’s hard to keep up with the stream of new technologies from Cupertino…
What I really care about are the fixes to how you do the sync. I want to select entire databases once and have that happen all the time. Having to re-select each database to sync from DTTG all the time is a PITA. I want it set up to be an automatic sync when I am in my home wifi according to parameters I set up once. I want to eliminate the having to replicate the items to sync into a sync folder. I will never use dropbox, too risky for my private and personal data so for me fixing the user interface issues and the multiple machines problems are far more important than support for iCloud, Dropbox or other cloud based sync. I’ll never use them anyway.
I’m happy to wait until it’s right. I’ve trained myself to sync my databases using Chronosync to my Macbook Air while I’m in the shower each morning. Never had a problem.
Looks like I won’t be getting rid of Dropbox with Mountain Lion, then.
Really too bad. Apple gave me for a lot of spce when MobileMe got canceled and I wanted to use it more. But most of my files are in DT so most of my cloud space will be in Dropbox.
Rather short-sighted. Perhaps they’ll fix the problem with time. I’m sure the people there use databases.
Tom S.
It’s been about 2 months since “very, very shortly”
Update?
it’s probably coming “very, very, very shortly” now 
Funny thing. I was standing at an elevator the other day. I pushed the up button and it lit up. Guy right behind me saw me do it. He pushed the button anyway. Five seconds later he pushed it two or three times repeatedly. Another five seconds and he pushed it again. The elevator didn’t arrive any faster.
It’s not the worst thing I the world and I guess I don’t care that much. But these repeated remarks about the lateness of the new version of DT don’t do anything but clutter up the forum. A blog posting explained the situation less than a month ago. The link is in this thread. It’s not going to arrive any faster because you’ve decided to press the button again.
Tom S.
Hi all,
This is an interesting post from the folks over at OmniGroup. The post is explaining why it has taken a year and longer to figure out syncing for OmniOutliner. It sounds like the database and file structure is very similar to DevonThink and consequently, they are faced with the same non-trivial challenges of doing sync, and doing it right. So, I would offer this as some support that others are also facing this challenge and it has taken them much longer than anticipated, some of which has to do with issues beyond their control - like Dropbox and iCloud.
A glimmer of info. is that it looks like the OmniGroup may know more about iCloud’s future as they discuss that iCloud may very well support the type of file structure OmniOutliner has and this may mean DevonThink too if they in do in fact user similar file structures. Anyway, just throwing this out there.
This is just a “me too” post. I’m looking for a note taking and research support application that allows me to perform Mac to Mac syncing over my LAN. I’m currently using several different applications that I sync with a backup utility, but that’s awkward and can lead to lost data if I’m not careful. Also, the vendor that makes one of my applications (Mori) seems to have gone missing so I’ll need to jump to something else sooner or later.
DEVONthink looks like it might be a solution that can work for me, but it’s a complicated enough product that I’m not going to even download a trial until I see that a sync utility is available.
Devon Technologies, the sooner you get sync out the door the sooner people like me can take you seriously. We live in a world full of a constellation of devices. Syncing is no longer an advanced feature; it’s an absolute bare-minimum requirement.
I’ll swing back by this site once a month or so to see if you’ve managed to finally ship this feature.
Zotero might be an application you are looking for. It syncs and it is free.
Zotero Standalone download page:
+1
I’m not able to migrate from DevonThink to another application because of the volume of information I have. Almost every other app works well, in less powerful ways, with smaller sets of data but I’ve not found anything that scales and continues to work. DevonThink is exceptional in this regard.
I am however waiting seems like forever, for Devon to support 64bit and using memory I have available and of course sync. I do not think that even Apple supports anything but 64bit with their new OS’s since Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion is nearly here.
I do realize that making sync work is not simple and every company that has managed it went through a very long and painful period of getting it to work. But it’s long overdue. I would agree that in 2012 sync is not a advanced feature, it’s a basic must have one.
I’m hoping something will arrive “very, very, very, very shortly” since “very very very shortly” and even “very shortly” have already passed, unless the timeframe is in decades instead of years or months.
Waiting another 3 years for iCloud to stabilize and begin working the way DevonThink needs, would most likely be the simpler path, but I’m not sure how many customers you will have left by then.
“Waiting another 3 years for iCloud to stabilize …”
I really hope they aren’t doing that. iCloud is not a serious sync solution for anyone who cares about their data. It never will be no matter how well iCloud works. People who actually value their data aren’t interested in seeing it spread across servers owned by other people and corporations, especially multinational, multi-billion dollar a year corporations. People who value their data want to keep it inside their own firewalls and under their own personal control, where it belongs.
Machine to machine sync over the LAN is the only solution that makes any sense. Spreading things across the cloud … that’s for kids who haven’t thought through the ramifications of their poor choices.
I sincerely hope that the DEVONThink team is grown up enough to understand this. In fact, I fully expect that they are. But I thought I’d better post this, just in case, before I faded back into the woodwork.
Personally, I will stick to LAN sync of my Macs. although I’ve finally gotten download broadband upgraded to 12 Mbs, initial transfers of my larger databases would still seem like watching grass grow. With Thunderbolt, good old sneakernet database copying between Macs is fast.
But there are legitimate needs for sync via the cloud. As for Dropbox itself, Nathan has discovered enough quirks in it, such as file size limits and batching limits on number of files, to reaffirm my distrust of it (that is, direct use of Dropbox for sync) for my own large databases. I’ve got some files that Dropbox would fail to copy. But as Dropbox is popular, he’s working to get the Sync plugin to be able to use Dropbox transfers without data loss or damage, and with reasonable speed.
Ummm… Does that mean he’s going to wait until he has Dropbox sync working before you’ll release LAN sync? If so, that’s discouraging.
It’s one thing that does it all, and LAN syncs and Dropbox syncs are very much alike except for the means of transport. But, again, we’re only fixing bugs but we will not release it as long as there are lethal bugs in it. We can live with quirks, but we will not tolerate known bugs that destroy your Gigabytes of data.
I kinda like this policy. Better late than a destroyer of data.
I’m especially excited to see revamped sync for DTTG/iPad.
Just FYI, while we wait for the official sync solution to be finalized, which Wooden Brain Concepts warmly welcomes, Wooden Brain Concepts has updated DevonSync to support Lion and Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper. We have removed MobileMe support due to its closure, but direct network synching via LAN or internet is still supported. We are aware that DevonSync has never been an ideal sync solution, but hopefully it can still fill a gap while we all wait. 
http://www.woodenbrain.com/products/devonsync/devonsync.html