Three questions about Database Reindexing

DEVONthink
,
1

I am suppose to rebuild one of my database, so I clicked Rebuild Database… and get the following message:

The application will export your contents, create a backup of the database and import the contents into a new database.

That sounds scary! Three questions come to mind:

  1. When the database is synced: Will Reindexing affect syncing? Do I have to add the database again to my sync location(s)?

  2. When the database contains a few Indexed Folders: How does Reindexing work with Indexed Folders? Are they kept as indexed folders in the database?

  3. Also, if Indexed Folders are are kept: Does Reindexing use a clean copy of the folder content to generate the index? I have sometimes issues with files in indexed folders: Updates to item names I have done outside of DEVONthink are not reflected in DEVONthink – does Reindexing fixes this similarly to removing the folder from DEVONthink and re-adding it (via File → Index Files and…)?

2
  1. The database will be resynced afresh after the rebuild.
  2. A rebuild has no effect on the imported or indexed status of files.
  3. A rebuild will remove references to missing files, so if you have some those references will be removed. The names should be the same as those in the Finder after the rebuild.

Where are you indexing files from?

3

Thanks Jim! That’s reassuring.

Regarding:

So this is better done where all devices on a stable internet connection because it will re-download many megabytes to all devices, right?

I index folders like ~/Dropbox/read/calibre-books and some folders in iCloud Drive. – This works reasonably well because it means the files are on multiple Macs available, in DEVONthink and outside.