To confirm, the second ID on another device not the ID on the device holding the databases? Interesting. Unless the database folders shared in a network permissions I am surprised.
Yes, and just to more fully explain, on the host computer, you enable incoming connections and set a password. The default port is typically fine. The databases on this host computer are in ~/Databases, which isnāt a shared folder.
On any guest/client computer or phone/tablet on the network, you then see that host computer show up as a sync option. You enter the password you set when you connect for the first time. Then you can see the remote databases and sync like normal. The guest device also doesnāt keep its databases in a shared folder.
Itās an elegant setup. Iām just experimenting with using solely Bonjour right now, but may keep doing it.
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Really cool. Thanks for trying and explaining. Useful to others.
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thanks a lot for the suggestions and sharings
yes, I think I need to consider using Webdav instead of Cloudkit sync
I just checked, I only turned on Bonjour on one Mac. That probably explains why Bonjour wasnāt helping
just wondering I should turn off Cloudkit sync if I enable Bonjour? Anyway, I guess this only works when I am at home
sorry, I should be more clear, I am referring to the Dropbox native app for Apple Silicon. Also I only have a free account , I do not want to pay more on the subscription as my databases are taking over 250Gb of storage space
sorry, donāt quite understand this part. Do you mean that if I do not install Dropbox client on my Macs, then I do not have to pay for Dropbox storage above the free plan. Do not quite know how this works
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If you donāt want to use their app, it is not necessary to install on your Mac to use DT dropbox sync so you get around the limit of devices if you do not pay for a subscription. My sync is 1.1 gb so way below the free 6GB I have on my Dropbox account. So I do not need a paid subscription. If your sync is beyond what is free with dropbox, yes you will need to subscribe.
ah, got it, thank you
Multiple sync methods can work in conjunction with each other, but Iām not sure of the limitations. Iād try only enabling both on the host computer, and either Bonjour or CloudKit but not both on the others.
Bonjour to accept āincomingā should be turned āonā on only one Mac in a network. Consider that the server. Bonjour turned on with my only iMac on the network. If āonā for multiple machines, things wonāt work.
You can keep Appleās Cloudkit turned on even if Bonjour enabled. If and when Appleās sync will work is another matter as many report itās unreliable. I use Bonjour and Webdav on local NAS. No cloud sync running as a normal matter. Even when Iām "out and about, when I return home it all catches up. If I want āeverythingā when out, I take the Macbook. Otherwise itās an iPhone with only what Iām working on or reading.
If DEVONthink allowed only one sync type at a time, they would have prevented that setup on the Settings for sync. That is not the case.
Re your Dropbox account questions. To get good advice, suggest you re-ask this on the DEVONthink forum. I use it occasionally for when I know I might want access to documents not yet synced to the iPhoneāthat rare. When I use it, it just works.
Like @ismh86 I use Dropbox, itās rock solid.
Yes Iām paying $$, but it works and I have to think about it.
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After just getting repeated sync errors with CloudKit, Iām giving Dropbox a try. I really want this to work. I like Devonthink too much, but I also like being able to capture stuff when I only have my phone with me. Help me, Dropbox, youāre my only hope.
Yes, Appleās CloudKit is unreliable for some, and not just limited to DEVONthink app if the chat on that interweb thing is correct ā¦
In addition to using Dropbox (which works well) when you are away from home/office network, setup Bonjour to sync when at home/office network. Fast and reliable. For my way of working, I can rely on Bonjour with no internet syncing as all changes catch up quickly on return to home/office network.
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This thread title is a little misleading. DevonThink doesnāt own CloudKit - Apple does - and the failures with CloudKit are Appleās responsibility, not DevonThinkās. Theyāre not app-specific failures.
I was one of the āchosen fewā who hadnāt had problems with CloudKit and didnāt know what everyone else was muttering about, until Christmas. Since then, I see almost daily errors on DT, and Iāve given any hope of Apple Notes being in sync (I maintain one device now as my āsource of truthā for Apple Notes, with the understanding that eventually the changes might filter out to other devices if Iām luckyā¦ it takes days!). (iCal is another app where the problems are obvious, I guess because people who use a calendar app across multiple devices are in there multiple times a day and will spot a missing sync immediately. I tend to only use a calendar on one device so havenāt spotted syncing errors here myself.)
There have long been reports of CloudKit sync issues, but there were a flurry of reports around Christmas of sudden issues emerging with CloudKit sync, and they donāt seem to have abated. (You can observe this in forums like this one, and DTās, but also Google searches peaked at Christmas and have continued to fluctuate at a higher level than before Christmas.)
We call a lot of data through DTās sync (or I do), and its error log is visible (and thorough), so youāre seeing the problem in real-time, but youāll be experiencing the same issue with other apps running on CloudKit too, you just might not be aware of it because the error logs arenāt visible, youāre not calling up fresh data in real-time, the app may present local data until it can sync, etc. (As an example, Iāve also been getting a lot of conflicts in NotePlan this year, but as I use that less in iOS it isnāt so annoying.)
Anyway all of this is to say Apple has fallen asleep at the wheel on CloudKit and really should fix whatever they broke at Christmas. (Iāve read from actual people with expertise - i.e. not me - that the problem is most likely that they expanded the service too rapidly without reliable infrastructure for handling such a large number of syncs. Iām guessing thatās a huge problem to now retro-actively fix without further jeopardising the service.)
I have found that sometimes closing DT and waiting a few minutes before re-opening is enough to kickstart CloudKit (that trick doesnāt work with Apple Notes).
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+1 for Bonjour syncing. No cloud needed.
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I should add that Iām testing having all my devonthink DBs on a small pocket ssd. This is working very well, although I should add that I no longer use iOS or iPadOS to any real extent. I replaced my iPad with a MBP and it made me realise just how poor the iPad is for real work.
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NotePlan is the only sync that I rely on in real time. NotePlan occasionally reports that CloudKit seems to be down but its fallback behavior is robust and my changes always get through. I expect errors to sometimes be reported in any networked system. Failure and recovery is a fact of life in a network. I try to minimize problems by making changes on one device at a time (waiting if possible to see that data has synced before switching to the other device). And also not going wild re-organizing all at once the data in an app that I want to sync other places.
Sorry, off-topic but we would appreciate it if theyād finally fix PDFKit as well 
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Indeed! Our sync engine talks directly to Dropboxās servers so it has no need for the Dropbox application on your Mac or even your Apple mobile device, at least not for syncing our apps.
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agree with this approach. And as I know you 
Iām assuming you have these small SSDs added to your primary/secondary backup strategies.
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Sometimes I quite fancy leaving iPadOS. At one point I didnāt have an iPad for maybe 2 years and I just used my laptop like in ye olden days, as an actual āmobile deviceā (I also used my phone a lot more then, that was in the era of the smaller iPhones too, maybe 6-8 years ago!). My mistake was creating a nice desk system for my MBP, with external monitor, keyboard, etc. Now I think ādo I really need to unplug my MBP to use it somewhere elseā and I end up back on my iPad.
Maybe this is a sign that I should buy an iMac and move my MBP back to mobile work as it was intended 
(Iām joking. Iāve idly thought about this before but I have a mental distinction of the MBP as the āhome hubā where everything is maintained, and unless my MBP was syncing to my iMac I donāt think Iād like it.)
Do you do any reading on screen? (I mean more than this forum - reports or books or whatever!) If so, are you using your MBP or something else?
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Just got a new laptop, and DT managed the resync transition perfectly. iCloud Drive (and documents) are, however, now stuck āuploadingā, which is blocking all other iCloud uploads and syncing. Sigh.