Update Name of Item Links Automatically

I was going to post an odd behavior/problem I was seeing but I think I just figured it out. I read the documentation and searched this forum for an answer but couldn’t find a solution, so I was going to post it as a question for help. Since I think I know what’s going on now, I decided to post it anyway here in case someone else comes across the same issue I had and has having the same trouble.

I’ve only recently discovered the copy-item-link capability with the update name of item links automatically option and am thrilled! It lets me easily link DT groups or files to markdown notes I make in Obsidian and index in DT. If I ever need to make a change to the group/file name in DT, it automatically updates the file in Obsidian.

What I’m actually linking to mostly are groups in DT rather than files, but I don’t think that makes a difference to the issue. I had made quite a few links to many groups. I had to change some group names in DT but then discovered that not all of the corresponding names in the item links were updating in Obsidian. Was I doing something wrong (it’s new to me)? Was it a Keyboard Maestro macro I was using? Was it something to do with indexing? Or with iCloud sync? Or perhaps some locking by Obsidian?

It was really puzzling because many of them worked and some did not. I started to just look at the linked markdown file within DT to watch if it updated when I made the change (i.e. remove Obsidian from the testing).

I was just about to post for help when I realized the group names I’m using that are having problems had some special characters in the name such as 24.90 Courses (Math & Stat). I like the fact that DT lets me use them when I want. But apparently the update name capability does not. When I remove the parenthesis and ampersand characters from the group name and then copy the item link to place it in a note without them to begin with, I am able to change the name in DT and it will automatically update! I’m guessing here that the search within DT doesn’t like or expect those characters to be present and that’s why the whole name wasn’t updating. Now I may be wrong in my rationale, but it seems to be working. I’ll just make sure to be more careful on my group/file names.

Hope this helps others in the future if searching the forum for help similarly. If I’m wrong and this isn’t the solution, I appreciate any other advice on what might be going on. I’ve only done a few tests, but they seem to work.

Thanks for the report!
It’s potentially a matter if the parentheses not being escaped. We’ll check this out.

  • What operating system are you running? I’m seeing no issue with changes being reflected in DEVONthink on my Ventura Mac. Nothing wrong on Sequoia either.

  • Did the group name initially have parentheses or they were added and the changes stopped happening?

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Thanks for the bug report, the next release is going to fix this. It’s caused by the trailing ) character.

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