New to DT and am puzzled by two (related?) behaviors.
Added my Desktop to a new database. All additions are indexed, not imported. It has ca. 80 GB and is one of the things I’m trying to organize with DT. All files are there in DT and will open, but the next day I discovered that I can’t see them in the Finder Desktop. (Note that I usually use Path Finder which has its own quirks, but I checked and what I was (or wasn’t) seeing there was the same in the Finder.) In DT, I was able to drag the Desktop contents to my indexed Documents folder in that database and they all showed up in there in DT and in the Finder. I did Update Indexed Items in this process but that didn’t fix anything. Has anyone seen this behavior?
In the same timeframe, I made a PDF and added it to a folder yesterday. Today I can’t see it in either DT or the Finder but can find and open it with HoudahSpot which says it’s in the folder I’m looking at. Again, Update Indexed Items was done, but no joy, Today, I made a similar file and just dragged it to that folder in the Finder, after which it shows up there and in DT. I’m puzzled by this non-intuitive (to me) and inconsistent behavior. What am I doing wrong?
Welcome to DEVONthink and this forum. You are on a journey.
Indexing the mac “Desktop” is not a particularly good idea. Why not organize the files using Finder since the files are not in DEVONthink?
Re-read and understand DEVONthink’s nomenclature and especially file indexing in the “DEVONthink Manual” before doing much more messing around like this. Starting on page 53 of the 3.9.7 version. No need to repeat all that here. While there, scan the entire “DEVONthink Manual” to at least understand what is there for future needs.
Also look at “Tips & Tricks” under the “…” link at the top of Sidebar.
Is it possible you accidentally imported rather than indexed the files? That would be consistent with what you describe. Indexed files and folders are distinguished by a tiny Finder icon to the right of their name in DT’s View and Sidebar panes.
Perhaps you are conceptualising DEVONthink as another kind of Finder-type program like PathFinder. That is not what DT is for. In my opinion it would be better to see it as a library for research materials. Also, I haven’t found dumping a whole load of material into DT all at once to be a good idea. I have found it better to import things incrementally organising them as I do so.
Why do you have 80GB of data on your desktop? You should not be using the desktop as a general storage space and performance of the machine can be adversely affected by this. I would recommend moving all or the majority of this to the Documents folder.
Are you also using macOS’ disk management and pushing the desktop to iCloud Drive?
And as others have noted, DEVONthink is not a general file management application. So while it maybe able to help you sort the files, this is not its highest and best use.
I sometimes see my desktop contents disappear. Force quitting the Finder has always brought them back into view. Nothing has actually been lost when that happens.
Indexing your Desktop might be OK unless the Mac adds some special treatment for those files.
I’m a timid fellow, unwilling to be a test pilot, except for those rare occasions I mess with Devonthink contents from the Finder. (No! Horrors, no! For the love of life and data, never do that!)
Thanks to all who responded to my OP. It’s true, I shouldn’t have 80 GB of files on my Desktop and I always tell my clients not to do that. I’m IT manager/exhibits person at our museum and just coming off a big launch. Needed to clean up the resulting mess and decided it was time to start tagging files. Had flirted with DT for years, but didn’t feel the need for another layer of “abstraction” in my file management. But, with so many files from so many areas, I can’t find anything. After previewing several tagging-related programs, DT’s implementation seemed the best and most stable. My biggest take-home from the discussion is that I shouldn’t see DT as a Finder replacement and should keep it more project-focussed. Will do, going forward.
Thanks again for all your replies and suggestions!
While DEVONthink could help makes sense of such a mess, here’s a common experience…
People dump a mass of files into a database intending to curate and sort it all into a manageable state. It’s too much to do in one sitting, so it continues to the next day. But no one has days of free time to tackle such a project and life/work gets in the way. Soon enough, the database is left unfinished, and often, forgotten. So in a way, you’ve just moved the mess to a new location. If you’re importing the files, the upside is you now have them all in a self-contained package you could archive or move to an external drive.