Just out of curiosity, where are the various DTPO trashes stored? I can recall emptying the DTPO trash a week ago and the item count under my System trash can zoomed up to 2400 or so, the number of trashed items.
Now today I deleted a database and wondered where its trashed items are (were). Since deleting that database I deleted some ten or twelve items and then searched for them in the .dtdbase packages, in the ~/Library/Application Support/Deveonthink Pro 2/ folder, and found nothing. I went to the “trash” folder listed under Globals and selected “show in Finder” for one of those files. It was contained in one of those arcanely-labeled DTPO folders (like …/Files.noindex/rtf/a) so it was still within the database package.
Am I correct in assuming that deleted items remain within their containing database but are flagged somehow as “deleted?” Then subsequent emptying of the DTPO Trash will rummage through the databases and remove those flagged as trash?
I’m mostly curious because I want to be sure that when a db is deleted, all files within that were previously deleted are also trashed.
Just like Mac OS X uses invisible folders for each volume, DEVONthink Pro is using a dedicated trash group for each database. Emptying the trash(s) moves the files to the system trash.
And I sure wish they could be permanently deleted when emptying DT’s internal Trash, e.g. how emptying trash in iPhoto works.
My feeling is that deletion in v1 could be especially risky without even having Undo, while in v2 it’s swung too far the other direction by now having Undo, Trash, and multi-level Trash emptying. I can’t think of another app with internal Trash that moves files to system Trash when it’s emptied.
Maybe you could implement immediately permanently deleting DT Trash, bypassing system Trash, when adding an Option key modifier to the Shift-Command-Delete Empty Trash shortcut? Keeping the warning dialog would be fine, and perhaps make the text be different for the current and enhanced behaviors. Actually this current text isn’t entirely accurate:
“Are you sure you want to remove the items in Trash permanently? You cannot undo this action.”
That gives the impression they’ll be gone forever rather than being moved to system Trash which still allows recovery.
It really bothers me that DT documents I want permanently deleted appear in system Trash. Both when system Trash is empty or when it temporary only contains other non-DT items. In the latter case it means I can’t perm-delete DT items without also deleting the other ones; that dependency is frustrating.
Hope you’ll consider my Option key suggestion or any other method for bypassing system Trash to permanently empty DT’s internal Trash. Thanks!
Thanks for the supportive feedback. It’s one of those seemingly minor issues (to most people) that’s become increasingly more of a nuisance to me. It’s distracting to see a non-empty system Trash and not always knowing if it’s only caused by containing DT documents I’ve already wanted permanently deleted.
