My current DEVONthink Pro Office DB file is 14GB consisting almost entirely of PDFs. The main index and metafile files compress down to around 500MB when I perform a DB backup, and the PDFs themselves are around 12GB. Big file. I store it all in an iCloud Drive folder.
I’m considering purchasing the “To Go” iOS app, but since I can’t try it out before I buy I want to ensure I understand how the app works.
If I download the app, will it be able to access this existing DB file in iCloud Drive? Will I be able to easily search the DB for keywords in the PDF documents, etc? Will I have to download a local copy of the DB file on a regular basis? If so, will the data the iOS app needs to download be equivalent in size to a backup of the DB index and metadata files (i.e. around 500MB, as noted above)? Or will it need to download the entire 14GB DB?
I don’t plan to import any new files to the DB with the iOS app. Just seeing if I can use it to search for and access my existing PDF files on-the-go.
If I will need the iOS in-app “Pro” purchase, that would be nice to know as well.
I am assuming you don’t mean you are storing your database in an iCloud Drive folder. It’s not only unsafe, it’s now disallowed if you’re running the current version.
No, because the database is not in iCloud Drive. Also, sync data is not a database. It’s raw data used to reproduce a database.
On the balance of your questions… it appears you are just indexing a bunch of PDFs you have stored in your iCloud Drive folder.
DTTG does not support indexed files, so you cannot browse iCloud Drive inside DTTG.
You can do a shallow sync, which is metadata only, and download contents on demand. This is part of the in-app Pro Pack purchase. However, full text is part of the metadata so the space savings will be as great as you imagine it may be.
To use a shallow sync, you MUST sync the contents of the indexed files to the sync location. This means if you have 14GB of PDFs in iCloud, your will be syncing approximately 14GB of sync data about the PDFs to iCloud. If you don’t you will not have contents to download on demand.
Okay, you answered my question about needing to download the full DB and PDFs. Thank you.
Regarding the first part of your response, can you elaborate on this practice being unsafe. It his from a data integrity perspective? Data security? I am running 2.8.4 and yes, I am positive my database in an iCloud Drive Folder, so obviously I am now worried I don’t know what I don’t know.
Do not run a third-party uninstaller. If your browser isn’t set to open safe downloaded files, just double-click the ZIP file to decompress it. Then double-click the disk image to open it, and drag and drop the application into the /Applications folder, allowing it to overwrite the old version when you’re prompted. (There is no danger to your data when you do this. (1) Your data is not stored in the application, and (2) we would not give you instructions that would jeopardize your data.)
Note: You should not rely solely on the Check For Updates function. We announce updates on our blog and social media.
It is very well known this is not a data-safe practice (and we’re not the only developers who have spoken on this). The cloud mechanisms are not made for handling package files like our databases.
Close the database(s). Quit DEVONthink and move the .dtBase2 files to a folder in your Home directory, like ~/Databases.