Tough migration to Mac M1, now databases all "in use"

DEVONthink
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Hi all, I had the toughest time migrating from my Intel MacBook Pro to a new M1 Pro, and had to spend hours with Apple Support. Might have been related to crud from the antivirus, VPN… One issue is I had to delete many apps, DevonThink included. So I just redownloaded, and now all my databases can’t be opened, as they are being shown as “in use”. I know what it is, but how do I fix it? DT is still installed on the original MBP, which is now shut down with the databases having been closed. Still no dice. I do have a NAS for syncing. Help!!

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How did you download them?

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Hi Christian, the databases? I had migrated them inside the User folder.

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And they were closed or in use during the migration? The second case would explain the error message.

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Yep, I think they might have been open :frowning: so now I went to the older mac and closed all databases, quit DT, and I am making a fresh copy into the new mac, should be OK, right?

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This should work but verifying them after the migration would be a good idea too.

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If for what ever reason copying all those files individually does not work for you perhaps make an archive zip on the original and move that one file instead of “gazillions” of files.

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  • Did you use Migration Assistant?
  • Did the databases on the new Mac ever open without this warning after your support with Apple?
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Hi Jim, Yep I had used MA. The migrated databases would not open, but I could create new ones, so yeah, the database not closed issue. I should have learned by now, but I guess I was so tired yesterday, and so rattled by the migration process, that I had a momentary freaking out.

BUT, I always keep multiple copies, physical, NAS, cloud (Backblaze) so I was not panicking.

The hilarious thing is, I figured one major part of the problem by myself (so proud), which even the senior tech support didn’t see (because they weren’t able to remote desktop). It was a ridiculous stupid little thing. App Cleaner did removed all of Norton and NordVPN BUT there were remains in the Network Preferences. Nobody asked about the presence / absence of these remains - Just an hour ago, faced with some of the earlier non-connectivity issues again, I went there and removed (-) them. Voilà…

Aaah the pleasures of migrating.

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I do have to say this once more:

  1. You guys are always amazing helpers - year after year
  2. DT is my life. Seriously. Work, Hobbies, Photography. Food. Travel., etc. To me, nowadays, DT is the reason I have a Mac and iPhone.
  3. I know I barely scratched the surface of what it can do

Grateful,

Mike

4 Likes
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Finalized migrating. Had to go back to original Mac, closed and verified all databases that were seen as open, then manually copied them to my new Mac, opened normally, re-verified, closed - all fine!

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You’re very welcome and thanks for the encouragement and support. :heart:

then manually copied them to my new Mac, opened normally, re-verified, closed - all fine!

Indeed tht is a tried and true method as noted in the recent blog post:

PS: It’s likely you had a permissions issue with the databases. It’s been a longstanding issue that Migration Assistant and Time Machine can sometimes have permissions issues with migrated or restored data. But the manual copy usually works well.