The same TROUBLESHOOTING chapter is in the version that you probably already had on your Kindle.
Clear the Log window.
Then do the Verify & Repair and check the log window. It should report something more granular, like n missing files.
It’s just not getting synced so I can access it remotely.
?
Can you clarify what you think you’ll be able to do ?
Having an indexed database doesn’t make it remotely accessible. In fact, unless the external drive is accessible to the other Mac, the files will be shown as missing.
What I meant by that is this: Whether or not I can get the indexed database to synch to my other devices, it is perfectly usable on my desktop iMac. I can sort file types via Smart Groups, etc. VERY USEFUL on the “home Mac” – would like to, of course, access it on my laptop, iPad, and iPhone like I do with other DEVONthink databases.
This is an INDEX database – do they not sync?
It may be that I was on thin ice from the beginning: From the “DEVONthink Manual”
While DEVONthink can handle large amounts of data, it is inadvisable to import or index uncurated data, like entire hard drives or your Home directory. You should be judicious in what you put into your databases.
This is exactly what I did - I INDEXED a hard drive archive that contains 2.78 TB worth of data. Again, on the plus side, it is perfectly accessible and useful on my iMac, complete with the ability to automatically filter material using Smart Groups - - all the stuff that makes DevonThink great.
RE: VERIFY AND REPAIR
These were in the log
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13 files SKIPPED
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8 files UNKNOWN FORMAT
And this…
DEVONthink To Go can sync an indexed database however… it cannot access a foreign filesystem so it would keep local copies of the indexed files. It can’t point to files outside itself or the device.
While you could use a shallow sync to minimize space, the space used would still be considerable unless most of the space was video/audio or other filetypes without much text.
This is exactly what I did - I INDEXED a hard drive archive that contains 2.78 TB worth of data. Again, on the plus side, it is perfectly accessible and useful on my iMac
Remember, DEVONthink is not a Finder nor a Spotlight replacement. And the skipped and unknown files are likely ones that wouldn’t be useful in DEVONthink.
You could attempt a File > Rebuild Database but I would advise rethinking your setup.
Fortunately, as I mentioned, I have a functional database on my desktop machine, so it’s not at all a total loss in terms of utility.
CURRENT STATE:
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I INDEXED the external “consolidation drive” in question, and there is indeed a useful index database on my desktop Mac.
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HOWEVER, this indexed database seems not able to be shared with my other devices like my other databases
So, an indexed database derived from an external drive seems unable be shared to my other devices.
Not the end of the world, by any means, as I have a good “home base” version of this database that is useful in all the ways that makes DEVONthink so valuable, as long as I’m on my main iMac.
Is there a procedure for having DEVONthink index the contents of an external drive so the catalog of same can be accessed remotely?
- In the case of DEVONthink To Go you could use a shallow sync but again, it will likely consume considerable space.
- Regarding DEVONthink, the files will not be accessible on the second Mac unless it had acess to the external drive. This would require connecting the drive to it or to share the drive via a file server / NAS on your network.
Or… if you had a second external with the same name connected to the second Mac, an indexed sync would create a local repository on that drive for the second Mac.