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The DEVONtechnologies Blog

Articles in the category Tips

October 30, 2018

Travel With Your Data… Securely

When syncing DEVONthink on macOS, you have the option of using a local sync location, called a local sync store. Technically it’s a folder on a volume that keeps databases in syncable form. Since it’s writing directly to a local disk, it’s by far the fastest and most transparent sync option. (more)

October 23, 2018

Where Has My Disk Space Gone

Despite the availability of affordable, high capacity external drives, modern laptops often come equipped with much smaller drives. This requires more judicious storage habits and paying closer attention to how much space is left. While you can find utilities that display this information in attractive types of charts, etc. you can get very good information directly from the operating system in macOS El Capitan and later. (more)

October 2, 2018

Reuse Smart Groups

Just like a smart folder in the Finder, smart groups in DEVONthink are a handy way to isolate items based on common criteria. But sometimes you may need a similar, but not exact set of criteria to use — a temporary and reusable smart group. For example, if you wanted to search for groups by name, you could create a smart group via Data > New > Smart Group, with criteria of… … (more)

September 25, 2018

Take a Hike

Our world is full of extraordinarily beautiful places, many set aside and protected from development for people to enjoy nature undisturbed. While not the only country with beautiful national parks, the US, with its varied habitats over three million square miles (eight million square kilometers), has many of its own. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a resource for park information? (more)

September 4, 2018

Backups (Part 3: Online)

When we discuss backups, we generally advocate primary backups on local drives. However, we sometimes hear, “But, I want to use an online backup!” While, this is indeed possible, here are a few things to bear in mind: … (more)

August 28, 2018

Backups (Part 2: Locally Hidden)

As mentioned last week, we sometimes receive support requests from people where the best option is to restore data from backups. All too often we find out they have not been diligent in keeping their backups current, and some have never even started them! Is there really no solution for them? For people who have used Time Machine but haven’t connected their backup drives in some time, there may be hope as Time Machine keeps a local hidden backup too. (more)

August 21, 2018

Backups (Part 1: Local)

If there’s one difficult question to ask in Support, it’s: “Do you have current local backups of your DEVONthink databases?” Too often, the answer is, “No” or “I’ve been thinking about starting backups, but I need to restore my data now!” This is a heartbreaking response to hear, and one we want to hear less and less. (more)