Thanks it isn’t working for me though. There are one or two things Bluefrog probably knows about already. “Move focus to Inspector” doesn’t work though move focus cmmnd option cntrl v does work.
“Move focus to Inspector” doesn’t work
Hmm… I’m not seeing an issue here.
What OS are you seeing this on?
I use a work round which is control + tab now which cycles round the panes I need.
Just FYI the expand all groups shortcut pete31 suggested doesn’t work for me either and I have the same issue as sawxray with ‘workspaces’ which I use a lot.
I haven’t fully checked the behaviors on open and close the app. It is open nearly all the time with me now.
I am on Monterey 12.0.1 on a 16 inch intel 2019 MacBook Pro.
Does using the left or right arrow key while holding the option modifier not work? It works over here.
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Sorry it does for child files. I created one to test it. I really want the behavior to open or close all groups at the top level. I don’t tend to nest groups. I tried that shortcut at the database level so to speak but it didn’t do anything.
What happens if you
- CMD + A to select all
- OPT + left arrow
? This should collapse everything.
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That works.
Is that how it used to? If I remember I didn’t used to have to select all like that?
However that works for what I need, which is usually to close anything I have open before moving on as it were, so I can see where I am on the database. Thanks for your help. I might try some more child files and nest one layer deeper.
Not sure but I think in DEVONthink 2 there was a menu item with shortcut for expanding/collapsing.
But normally DEVONthink should remember each group‘s state, I think. In at least one of my databases it doesn’t remember the state anymore and I too would like to know what to do.
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Yeah to get back to @sawxray 's point as you say. Some databases in some circumstances don’t remember their previous state and, it seems to me, go back to an earlier state, though I am not sure about that. It is quite hard to track really. Useful digression for me though and @BLUEFROG has picked up another obscure issue for me.
I have had one or two things that seem very specific to my own machine I have to say. I am always aware of user error and having shortcuts set up in other places that create conflict. I did try to check this one carefully though. One still misses things.
There is a condition where groups in the item list are showing in an unexpected expanded or collapsed state when reselecting a group in the Navigate sidebar. This should be addressed in the next release.
And yes, there used to be a menu command for Expand All and Collapse All in DEVONthink 2. However, this became problematic in cases where a person may have thousands of groups and documents, even stalling DEVONthink 2 as it tried to resolve all those files in the item list.
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Thanks again for squaring this circle @BLUEFROG we did digress and it all takes some untangling with this powerful app. My expanded or closed groups aren’t holding when I close and open, or even when I use workspaces.
again FYI the 'Move focus to…" in the “Go” menu works for everything except ⌘ -⌥ - ⌃ - I
Thanks for the explanation of why ‘expand all’ was dropped, that helps a lot and makes total sense. I am approaching this one with a new nested groups strategy at ‘user level’ as it were. Thanks to @pete31 for pointing the way too. I am going to use more nesting, there is no problem with doing that given my heavy use of search to get to stuff.
My pleasure. 
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Was this “always open” issue ever resolved? I’m still seeing the behaviour. I’m on DT 3.8.5.
-
Is Preferences > General > Interface > Sidebar > Automatically expand & collapse enabled?
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What view are you using, e.g., List view?
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Automatically expand and collapse is not enabled
-
List view is being used
I have a desktop and a laptop, which are synchronised using Bonjour.
Strangely, this behaviour only occurs on the laptop (from which the desktop synchronises).
- Are you expecting the expansion state to be synced between machines?
- If so, that’s not supported at this time.
No, I’m just expecting the database not to revert to expanding to the same group every time I open it, even though I’ve closed that group, or opened some other group before closing the database. I haven’t wanted to work in that particular group for some time now, but every time I open the database it is as if the database itself wants me to begin there. Which I don’t.
In the end, it finally became so irritating that I’ve just split up the database into several smaller ones. I’m just hoping that I don’t get a repeat of the problem and find myself looking at the same expansion every time I open a database, and having to close it before I can get on with my work.
I came here to post this same issue. It’s driving me insane. I have a group called “Meetings” with a bunch of groups named for years (e.g. “2022”), and every time I select the Meetings group, year 2022 expands. Makes me want to delete it, because it pushes down 2023 in the list, and I have to collapse it every. single. time.
But I have good news, @mbbntu. As I was typing out all the ways I tried to fix this, I realized I forgot some things and accidentally found the solution. Simply close the groups you want, and press Ctrl+S to save the view.
That solved it for me. I can now save whatever view I want (which is also great!). The Ctrl+S shortcut is for Save, but it’s greyed out usually. Use the keyboard shortcut.
To the DevonTHINK guys, this feature is actually kinda interesting now that I’m aware of it, but it’s so easy to accidentally press Ctrl+S while you’re not editing a document that it has probably already driven some of us to murder. I hope @mbbntu isn’t in prison. 
@cgrunenberg would have to comment further but that command should have no relationship to the state of windows and their elements.
Actually only modified documents can be saved, the shortcut (and its menu item) don’t affect the user interface.