Why do items and groups stay despite "move to" command executed

DEVONthink
1

So, I try to clean up folders and highlight items and groups to move them to other folders. Some move, others just stay there. I must be doing something wrong but need help to find out what. I spent lots of time trying to figure out what I am missing here . Thanks for any help.

2

DEVONthink doesn’t allow to move replicated records (or a parent group that contains a replicant) into themselves.

You can test whether a move is allowed by dragging a record.

If it’s allowed the desired destination record’s line is highlighted:

Allowed
Allowed781Ă—289 8.07 KB

If it’s not allowed the line is not highlighted:

Not allowed
Not allowed781Ă—289 7.8 KB

In the above capture it’s because Group 2 contains A. You can’t move or replicate recursively.

@cgrunenberg there’s an inconsistency, I think. The line is highlighted although the move isn’t allowed:

?
?781Ă—289 7.25 KB

3

If what’s left over is a replicate, I assume I can delete it and the original remains intact ?

4

If it’s a replicant then yes.

To verify whether it’s a replicant

  • Check the icon to the right of the name (see help Documentation > Appendix > Iconolgy)

or

  • Inspector > Info > Generic > Instances

or

  • Enable Mark duplicates and replicants in color in Preferences > General > Appearance

From help, Documentation > Getting Started > DEVONthink Simplified:

Replicants: Displayed with [icon, can’t be displayed here] to the right of a document’s name or the name optionally shown in red type, replicants are conceptually similar to aliases in the Finder or a second phone book entry for the very same person. Replicants are one file showing up in more than one location. […]

There is also the possibility of having a document that is both replicated and a duplicate. This will display this icon to the right of the name: [icon, can’t be displayed here]

It’s important that you understand how replicants work before you begin making changes to documents. Any changes to a replicant are carried over to all replicants; as you might imagine, this means that you can to do some very powerful (and potentially negative) things with your database’s contents via replicants. […]

Since one of the latest updates you can also verify that you didn’t accidentally moved a record’s last instance to the trash:

  • If the instance that’s in the trash is the last instance then the record is striked through. If that’s the case then emptying the trash deletes the record.

  • If it’s not striked through then there’s at least one remaining instance and you can empty the trash without loosing the record.

2 Likes
5

Thanks, the next release will fix this.