Sync duplicates and merges my documents

[BoxOfSnoo]

I just got a MacBook Air, so I would like to sync one or two databases between that and my iMac. I have been using DT for quite a few years now, and have some history built up.

I did the initial push to Dropbox, but when it’s done I end up with thousands of “2 merged documents” files, which seem to be duplicates other, existing documents. Why? I checked a bunch of them, and saw that the originals are still there, so I deleted them. Hopefully I haven’t lost anything and have to revert to a backup…?

I cleaned the location and resynced and it recreated them all.

What am I missing? I haven’t even tried to introduce another computer into the mix yet, this is ONE machine I’m dealing with.

Edit: I tried just importing the database onto my MBA over a direct connection, and it’s currently beach balling and spamming the log with “merging duplicate tag”. I know it’s going to create those dumb extra records.

Maybe I should explain my database. It is for (mostly emailed) receipts and I am strictly using tags as an organization mechanism. I use scripts to get the emails into the database’s inbox, and every once in a while I tag them and remove them from the inbox by dragging them to the “Tags” group (I understand this is the way to get them into the database store and out of the inbox).

When I sync it almost seems to think each record in the “Tags” group and in a child tag is a duplicate and tries to merge them.

Is nobody else seeing this problem?

[ndouglas]

@BoxOfSnoo

I use scripts to get the emails into the database’s inbox, and every once in a while I tag them and remove them from the inbox by dragging them to the “Tags” group (I understand this is the way to get them into the database store and out of the inbox).

Er… can you post a picture or two of your database? This sounds to me like a really unorthodox, completely unanticipated use, if I’m understanding you correctly.

[BoxOfSnoo]

@ndouglas

@BoxOfSnoo

I use scripts to get the emails into the database’s inbox, and every once in a while I tag them and remove them from the inbox by dragging them to the “Tags” group (I understand this is the way to get them into the database store and out of the inbox).

Er… can you post a picture or two of your database? This sounds to me like a really unorthodox, completely unanticipated use, if I’m understanding you correctly.

What would you like me to capture?

I was told on this very forum that that’s how to do it. I basically want to use only tags in my database, much like how gmail works.

I got your email, thanks, I got a lot of views yesterday but no replies. I’m happy to continue here.

[ndouglas]

I’m curious about your general file/folder hierarchy and which records are where.

I’d be very cautious about keeping actual documents (emails, RTFs, whatever) inside the Tags group. I’d recommend instead to drag everything to the “root” level of the database, i.e. outside of the Inbox, Tags, Trash, and so forth.

Unless I’m misunderstanding something, which is entirely possible… but I suspect this is what’s causing your issue.

[BoxOfSnoo]

@ndouglas

I’m curious about your general file/folder hierarchy and which records are where.

Here is a link to the structure, not that it really tells you much. I originally created the selected “Receipts” folder, but that was fairly clumsy and the redundancy kinda bothered me a little.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/2941e75b-870c-42a2-8f29-72a2ffc4a459/2f1094b955c6639657818091d7f45e35

@ndouglas

I’d be very cautious about keeping actual documents (emails, RTFs, whatever) inside the Tags group. I’d recommend instead to drag everything to the “root” level of the database, i.e. outside of the Inbox, Tags, Trash, and so forth.

Unless I’m misunderstanding something, which is entirely possible… but I suspect this is what’s causing your issue.

Ok, fair enough, to me that makes much more sense than what I was doing, which is why I am pretty sure I tried this but it didn’t work in the past.

If I may quote your email for more detail:

Tag items are matched up differently from other records. Most records are matched up by UUID, a globally unique string that is assigned to the record at its creation. However, some records, like tags, can be created on multiple machines simultaneously (with, of course, different UUIDs) but should not represent distinct records. Consequently, tags are matched using their names, rather than their UUIDs.

If your emails are in your tags folder, they might be treated as tags, and consequently merged based on their names.