Sync seems to be stuck on `not yet synchronized, upload database`

[BLUEFROG]

You’re very welcome

[awhilliard]

Hello all, new poster here with similar “not yet syncronnized, upload database” issues. Wanted to start here instead of creating my own new chain.

I’m trying to sync my DT3 data via WebDAV to my Qnap NAS. I’ve tried the process on my desktop and laptop macs, hitting the same wall both times. I have opened port 5301 on my Qnap as an alternative to the default 5001. I made sure the Qnap firewall is open and then port-forwarded all traffic on my network for 5301 to my Qnap’s IP address. I can log into my DT shared folder via WebDAV using Cyberduck, so know that the pipeline of data is clear.

I created a sync scenario from DT3 using WebDAV for a collection of 5 databases I’m hoping to keep synced. All seems fine, but the process is hung up at “not yet syncronized, upload databases” for all 5 of the databases. The one (brief) exception was the tiniest of the databases with only a couple text notes in it managed to connect yesterday from my laptop and sync correctly. This has not been repeated when I shutdown and deleted the laptop sync and shifted my experimenting over to my desktop mac. There, everything is stuck.

I’m happy to share more details, logs, or try anything suggested by Bluefrog or the rest of the community.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[BLUEFROG]

The starting point for sync issues should always be:

• DEVONthink: What is reported in Window > Log?
• DEVONthink To Go: Is there a triangle on the sync icon in the bottom toolbar? If so, tap it. What is reported?

[chrillek]

@awhilliard

I have opened port 5301 on my Qnap as an alternative to the default 5001.

Why, and what does that mean – both ports are open and used by WebDAV?

@awhilliard

port-forwarded all traffic on my network for 5301 to my Qnap’s IP address

Why? And is your Qnap’s IP address a local or a public one (in the 2nd case, you’re rather talking about the IP address of your router, I think).

@awhilliard

I can log into my DT shared folder via WebDAV

Is that the folder you use for syncing or are you really talking about a “shared folder” that you’d mount via SMB or NFS?

@awhilliard

I’m happy to share more details,

Screenshots of the sync settings on two of your machines would be useful. In particular the settings for the WebDAV connection.

[awhilliard]

Thanks @BLUEFROG and @chrillek for the quick responses! So far, I’m only working on DT3 on Mac, haven’t explored DTTG and WebDAV, so just have logs for the mac. I should’ve mentioned I’m using QNap’s “myqnapcloud” DDNS service that gives me a vanity URL on their “myqnapcloud.com” domain that points to my NAS from public. That’s the URL I used to log into the WebDAV, as opposed to using a specific IP address.

The Window > Log is interesting, reporting “Could not connect to the server,” followed by that vanity URL. The log then says “Cannot connect to host. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004).” These errors are logged each time I tried to sync one of the databases from the mac to the Qnap.

To @chrillek’s questions:

• I assigned port 5301 in the Qnap’s WebDAV preference panel for https connections as opposed to the default (5001), just as a small security measure to use a non-standard port.
• Your questioning of why I forwarded all my router’s incoming port 5301 network activity to Qnap made me realize that was unnecessary, as any WebDAV request would be paired with the vanity URL pointed at the NAS.
• My https URL requested in the WebDAV window of DevonThink includes the name of the folder on the NAS where I hope to store the sync databases. The screenshot below shows the beginning of the portion of the URL past “myqnapcloud.com/…” where you see the “shared folder” I was referencing before.
• You asked about potentially mounting a shared folder via SMB or NFS… My (albeit naive) understanding of how this will end up working is DT should be able to access the shared folder via the given URL without me needing to pre-load any NAS folders across the network onto my Mac via another protocol like SMB. Sorry if my initial use of the term “shared folder” was imprecise or confusing.
• Please see the 2 attached screenshots, both from my desktop machine but pretty much identical to how I tried the same process on my laptop mac earlier.

[rmschne]

Perhaps first get your WebDAV syncing working inside your network, avoiding for not the complexity associated with DDSN, port forwarding, etc.

Then tackle DDSN but first reviiew @chrillek’s piece:

How to use Synology NAS as WebDAV sync location

Since the question arises occasionally, the following steps might help in setting up a Synology NAS as a WebDAV sync location for DEVONthink. This explanation uses port-forwarding. There’s a TL;DR about the basics that might help to set this up with another NAS. An alternative to port-forwarding would be to set up your router as a VPN server and your mobile devices as VPN clients to connect to it. install WebDAV from Synology’s packet repository in its settings, turn on HTTPS, leave HTTP off a…

[chrillek]

I agree with @rmschne in that you should first make sure that you can connect and sync to the NAS from inside your network, i.e. using the local IP address of your NAS.

@awhilliard

The log then says “Cannot connect to host. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004).”

Which indicates clearly that DT can’t connect to your WebDAV server with the values you provided in the settings.

From Apple’s documentation:

This can occur when a host name resolves, but the host is down or may not be accepting connections on a certain port.

@awhilliard

Just as a small security measure to use a non-standard port.

Though it doesn’t do any harm, it is IMO pointless as a “security measure”. Obfuscation is not security, it just obfuscates. Any script kiddie will find the open port as easily as it will find the default one.

@awhilliard

as any WebDAV request would be paired with the vanity URL pointed at the NAS.

What do you mean? Your “vanity URL” does not “point at the NAS” (nor will it ever do that). It’s just a DNS entry that points to your router. That is the only device on your home network visible/accessible from the outside. Unless your NAS has a public IP address, in which case you wouldn’t need the “vanity URL” in the first place. So, please forward port 5301 to your NAS!

My original question arose from your unusual terminology:

port-forwarded all traffic on my network for 5301 to my Qnap’s IP address

“my network”, IMO, stands for “my local network”. Which your router has no business forwarding to. Which in turn means that the port-forwarding you set up in your router has nothing to do with your local network. In your local network, you’d simply use 192.168.xxx.yyy:5301 to address your NAS. No port-forwarding, as you supply the correct IP address of your NAS anyway.

To make things a little clearer:

• You do not have a “vanity URL”. You have no URL at all, but a pseudo-host inside the myqnapcloud.com domain. Probably username.myqnapcloud.com. You can call that a “vanity host”, if you want (but it doesn’t really help). This pseudo-host is associated with a (probably varying) IP address by QNAP’s domain server.
• The IP address is the one currently assigned to your router by your internet provider
• Your router must forward all traffic on port 5301 (or wherever your WebDAV server is listening) to the internal IP address of your NAS. Most likely something like 192.168.xxx.yyy. And you should ensure that this IP address is fixed, i.e. not changed by your router occasionally.
• Then check if you can connect with Finder to the WebDAV using https://username.myqnapcloud.com:5301, providing your NAS username and password.
• If that works and if you see the directory that you want to use for DT syncing, DT should be able to connect when using the same URL and credentials.
• If the directory is not there, create it.

If it still doesn’t work, check the WebDAV log on your NAS and report back here.