I have had a rocky affair with DT To Go on my iPhone 6… Here’s the latest problem:
I added several documents (PDFs) to a database that has a sync connection to my webdav server.
Then I hit the “cloud” icon to make sure they are synced.
After a few moments it gets a little triangle, indicating something’s amiss. I click on it again, and it shows the Log with a few “Sync Information” items.
These items are useless. Why? Because they just list part of a URL, and there’s no way I can find to expand the text or see the entire message! (I’ve tried: tapping on the log entries, rotating the screen to landscape to show more, but it’s not enough).
So all I see is part of an address, an incomplete log message as to what’s going wrong this time.
How can I figure out what’s going wrong this time and fix it?
To answer my own question, I figured out the problem, but this brings up a bug report.
I went into the sync settings and it said I wasn’t authorized. So I hit “edit” and sure enough, my webdav password was missing. It was fine two days ago, and I have not changed any settings since.
Earlier last week I had the same problem with the encryption key. It had just disappeared and stopped syncing as a result.
Now, since I use SECURE passwords (i.e. long and random), typing them over and over again into DT To Go is NOT a workable solution.
Anyway, at least I was able to get rid of the cryptic error messages this time by re-entering my password.
Bugs that I request to be fixed:
If a log message is going to be displayed, it should allow the user to easily see the entire message, not just a small part of it.
If a user stores a password or key, it should remain there (perhaps stored in the system keychain). The user should not have to keep re-entering these things on a randomly regular basis.
Additional feature requests:
Setting up the sync in the first place is not easy - there’s no “wizard” or guide of any kind, and a single typo in sync store name requires starting over from scratch. It is NOT user friendly. In fact, because of all the problems I’ve had getting it set up and running reliably, I have it only syncing to one (of several) of my sync stores - and now I’m seriously considering going back to the competition. This needs to be easier to set up and maintain - especially for webdav. The whole reason I’m using DT instead of one of those “cloud based” competitors is that I want control over my data. However, the current app still makes it quite inconvenient.
I have been a user of Devonthink on and off since 2008. I think it has many wonderful features and has great potential as the “go to” software for this, but reliability has always been temperamental. It’s why I abandoned it in 2012 as part of my regular workflow. I came back to it recently, and though there have been many further improvements, the reliability is still not where I would like it to be. As a developer myself, I strongly encourage the developers to focus on increased reliability and ease of use. I believe you would double or triple your market if you did so.
To be clear: I want DT and related to be successful! I am not a naysayer, just a bit frustrated here that I am penalized with regular problems like this for choosing this solution. I shouldn’t be penalized for using Devonthink.
It’s definitely a bug that DTTG2 loses the password (actually, an issue with the iOS keychain). We’re working on this. We also see the necessity to make the long error messages of sync easier readable.
Regarding the set-up of sync: We are considering sort of a “wizard”. However, this does not help that you need to enter the details, e.g the sync store name.
Hi, same problems here, i used Evernote for the last 2 years and i tried DT, and must say its a wonderful Mac app, but iOS app has a WAY to GO, sync problem is the first reason.
