X-devonthink-item link not working since update?

DEVONthink
1

Hi there!

I might have a problem with x-devonthink-item links.

I have links like so: (x-devonthink-item://alotofdigits?page=0&annotation=Text&x=449&y=435)

(replaced digits with “alotofdigits” to not post actual link).

It’s a link to an annotation in a pdf. The link is in a mark-up document, synked with Obsidian. The link has worked before, and I love this function. But now when I click it nothing happens … I even get a little click-sound / system sound, as saying that it’s not functional.

Is there a setting I need to change? Or is this due to an update?

I have Mac OSX Sonoma 14.1.2.

Thanks!

2

A DEVONthink annotation link should look like this one (which is an actual working link to an annotation on a PDF stored in an indexed Obsidian vault – i.e., the same context of the supposed problem):

x-devonthink-item://0EA29BC7-4D7C-43FA-8A1E-00DB7D02694E?page=0&annotation=Text&x=1101&y=5789

So, your link “should” work assuming alotofdigits is the same pattern. And, if it doesn’t work, then you changed something. The most current version of DEVONthink is still working just fine with respect to annotation links.

Easy to fix. Go back to the pdf & annotation and copy another annotation link. If either the PDF or the annotation is missing, then nothing will work.

(BTW, you don’t need to hide the digits. There is nothing about them that anyone could decipher to figure out your private stuff.)

2 Likes
3

The current version of macOS Sonoma is 14.4. Update your OS and make sure you stay current with the operating system and our point releases.

4

Thanks for you input! Updated OSX now and made a new annotations summary of an article. That new file has working links, so no problem there. Also made changes to the original article, and the links in the new summary still work. Great.

The prior ones still don’t work. That’s ok for now, I can redo them.

However, for future usage, what might be the problem when this happens? My workflow towards my PhD dissertation is that I make annotation summaries from articles, put them in my linked Obsidian folder, then work from this file making new posts based on the annotations, building up my Zettelkasten system that way, always keeping the link to the original annotation even when I make new posts.

Remaking summaries won’t help going forward, if the not-working link is embedded in the Zettelkasten system. Fortunately I’m in the beginning of working with summaries in this way, but in just a few months this will concern several hundreds of files.

I could keep an untampered backup copy of the original annotations summary, copying the annotations link to a new obsidian post, but it still becomes useless if the link is broken / doesn’t open the annotation.

Here are two links from two different articles / summaries.

A working link: ## [Page 130](x-devonthink-item://40223642-1BE9-4BC3-B451-B8B3DF3B9587?page=1&annotation=Highlight&x=43&y=107)

A not-working link: ## [Page 3](x-devonthink-item://788D3590-FA33-41AD-8299-063677D3E1A4?page=2&annotation=Highlight&x=73&y=230)

Again, clicking the not-working, the mac gives off a blipp-sound, as when an operation is not possible (same as when trying to save when changes are already saved).

Happy for any pointers going forward.

Cheers,
Andreas

5

I fixed your links. Isn’t it weird that “Page 130” has “page=0” in the link, and “Page 3” has “page=2”?

6

Well spotted! But I think [Page xxx] refers to the actual page number in the article, while the page number in the link is the page of the pdf, based of how many pages the pdf has. Looking at other working links they all have the same pattern.

Is this mismatch of page number what you mean when you say you fixed the links? Just so I don’t miss out on a solution based on misreading.

Cheers!

7

I made them readable in the forum

1 Like
8

Ah! Learning something new every day :-). Thanks!