Sync Storage Space Required

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hi everyone. I’ve been using Dropbox to sync my databases to my iPad. It’s working flawlessly and I’m hesitant to change anything, but with the price increase to Dropbox I’m considering moving the sync to iCloud so I don’t have to pay for two cloud storage solutions. DEVONThink is the only thing that is putting me over the top for a free Dropbox account. Here are my questions:

  • Have you switched from Dropbox sync to iCloud sync? What was your experience? Do you have any thoughts or words of advice?

  • If I have a 10 GB database on my Mac, do I need 10 GB of cloud storage for the sync to work properly?

If it’s important to the discussion, I’m currently on DT 2.11.3. I want to upgrade, but I’m nervous about losing any data or syncing capability. I will upgrade eventually, but I want to be very careful and make sure I do it properly. It could be that it would be best to stay on my current sync workflow and wait to make changes until I upgrade.

2

Switching is simple, not only from DEVONthink 2.x to DEVONthink 3, but from Dropbox to iCloud. You’d basically just disable one, enable the other, and enable the databases to sync.

  • If I have a 10 GB database on my Mac, do I need 10 GB of cloud storage for the sync to work properly?

Essentially, yes.
Also, there will be space on your local machine used by iCloud. While our sync cleans up after itself as best as it can, iCloud can pull data to the machine as it sees fit too.

  • Have you switched from Dropbox sync to iCloud sync? What was your experience? Do you have any thoughts or words of advice?

While we don’t advocate one solution over another, iCloud has been much less reliable for many people since Apple was messing around with it for iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina (and not just related to DEVONthink, but many other apps and operations). Some people have issues, some people don’t… and maybe some don’t but will at some point. We can’t say.

So my advice, as if I was talking to a friend: I personally wouldn’t do it (and I have no particular affinity for any cloud service, so this isn’t me vouching for Dropbox. It is just anecdotally more reliable now.)

1 Like