I’m wondering if there’s a way to run DEVONthink 3 in a sync mode that mirrors that which you offer with DEVONthink To Go. The scenarios is this: I have a desktop computer that manages various large databases and syncs via iCloud / CloudKit, thus enabling me to view on my iPhone all databases and documents available to me and download any docs I’d like. Thanks to your sync tech and To Go product, this works perfectly.
However, when I’m on the road and using a laptop, I don’t have the same storage profile I do on my desktop, so the idea of importing all of these databases in their entirety doesn’t work. Instead, I’d like to have the ability on my laptop to do the same shallow sync that DEVONthink To Go offers - no import, but all databases / groups / etc., along with a full LIST of all documents sync’d to my laptop, allowing me to download ON DEMAND just as I do from an iPhone. Similarly, any documents I’d add on my laptop would be sync’d back to iCloud just as they are via To Go.
Is there a way to achieve this that I’m missing, and if not, any chance you could consider this for a future release?
Thanks.
At this time, shallow sync isn’t on the table for DEVONthink.
Shallow syncing was implemented due to the restrictions of mobile devices, both in terms of space available and expandability.
Computers have not had these limitations, with external hard drives being cheap and sufficiently sized for the vast majority of your databases. We still advocate using a connected external drive with the admonition you should add it to your primary backup strategy as well.
Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, some of my databases are hundreds of gigabytes, so importing them all to a 512gig MacBook Pro does present problems. And as my preferred backup strategy is to a RAID / NAS device, I’d like to avoid the need to travel with an external hard drive, particularly given the fact that I may at any given point only want or need to download a few MB worth of docs at a time.
Is this something that might be considered for a future release?
particularly given the fact that I may at any given point only want or need to download a few MB worth of docs at a time.
If you have such light downloading needs, why carry “hundreds of gigabytes” of data?
It’s on a (very long) list of possible future enhancements, but as I said, there’s nothing on the table right now.