It’s the user guide (also available through the in-app Help)—so, yes, it’s the manual (which is superbly comprehensive).
Stephen
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See DEVONtechnologies | Handbooks and Extras for the ver 3.7.2 “DEVONthink Handbook”. Same text in DEVONthink’s help file.
Be forwarned that some people have experienced the SAME sort of data loss in indexed files. So leaving them out of DT does not guarantee you won’t get hit by the bug.
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This talk about data loss makes me nervous as I had intended to move my file cabinet from Evernote to DEVONthink 
. I have never experienced anything like data loss or syncing problems with Evernote since 2008 (granted, others might have had) and reading about potential problems here with DEVONthink gets me questioning my decision 
.
I recommend spending some time on the DEVONThink forum for a reasonably balanced view. I’m not suggesting that comments here are not balanced but a few members do seem to post quite often about data loss (which, of course, is clearly concerning for them) and I (and others) have never experienced it with DEVONThink. Take advantage of the generous free trial, experiment and see for yourself how you get on with it.
Stephen
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As I’m writing this I see some recommend visiting the forum. Great idea! I have found support to be amazing. Tone wise, like anyone I assume they are coming from a good place. If it is in a manner that I think is a bit harsh I assume it may be a cultural thing. Early on in my career I used to think some of my colleagues outside the US were rude. Turns out it is there culture to not make small talk or be defensive in situations that didn’t warrant it.
I have 18 gig spread over 4 thousand files spread over 7 databases in DT. I sync between a desktop, laptop, iPhone and iPad.
While I haven’t experienced data loss, I run an AppleScript once a week to verify and zip up the databases. Those are stored on an external drive and then Backblaze.
I love DT because of its sync capabilities and search capabilities. Far beyond the offering of any other app I have tried. Pre-pandemic I would travel to places without an internet connection and I could sync between devices just fine. The DT databases are not even real databases but done in a way that I can access the files in an emergency using just the file system. The syncd data can be stored encrypted!
Cons for me are the antiquated PDF annotator on the MacOS compared to the iOS versions. Usable but just not as easy to compared to something like Highlights app.
Lots of pros but like any software I have multiple archived backups.
Just sharing my experience.
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Thank you @Stephen_C , I’ll do that. Guess I’m just a bit baffled by the seemingly complex nature of DEVONthink and it’s Sync - in Evernote it was basically a fire and forget solution for me in all those years. DEVONthink is definitely a different beast and at the moment I feel a bit intimidated I guess and wonder if I took the right solution …
More research needed I guess
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Thank you for your insights. To be honest when reading at DEVONthink Forum and asking a question I was actually irritated because the answer seemed cold and harsh to me - even as a German 
. Well if course that is completely subjective…
Personally I can only compare DEVONthink to Evernote (with my 7000 notes and files) and it never let me down either since 2008 and I miss some features in DEVONthink it seems; also the concept of having to “maintain” my databases and check for integrity or 0 size entries is confusing and new to me - besides the item counts being different and inconsistent on all devices 
.
I tried to make Devonthink work like Evernote I’m terms of sync and I just didn’t like it. It’s so different in my mind. I ended up switching back so I didn’t have to think about it. It was a luxury I could mostly afford as most of the stuff I stored wasn’t super sensitive (if it was I put it somewhere else). I am settled now on Craft and iCloud for documents, but would likely switch back to Evernote if they add backlinking and iCal support.
Some of the sync discussion here is confusing. Evernote and DEVONthink are completely different animals from a sync point of view. Evernote is a cloud system. Everything syncs through their server and they have access to that data. This is one of several reasons that I left EN. DEVONthink is not a cloud service — the sync storage is yours. Nobody else gets to see your data.
I like DT but that is not the point. Trying to make DT look like EN from a sync point of view — doesn’t seem like a useful exercise.
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I understand that now, but not when I first started. Evernote sync, for the most part just works and that is nice. When I first tried Devonthink, I had a lot of difficulty getting sync going. It was very frustrating. I only mention it because when I switched I didn’t find it as clear as it needed to be.
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Well I did not have any issues with DT syncing via CloudKit but you are right that there are many moving pieces that can be misconfigured. Also, the mobile client does not seem to sync in the background, so whenever I open DTTG I always get a moment waiting for it to sync the indexes.
Evernote obviously wins here in terms of friendliness and as a user you may not care about the underlying reasons why it’s different between these two products, but on the other hand DT keeps your data always local and that’s why it wins in terms of speed.
Different beasts, different tradeoffs.
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On a somewhat related note, I have an old v2 license I haven’t ended up using much. As I am currently a grad student, I have the opportunity to either upgrade that license to v3 or to outright buy a new v3 license. Upgrading would obviously wipe out the ability to use v2. So, is there any reason to retain the ability to use v2’s functionality alongside v3 (on a separate machine), or should I just go all-in with v3 all around?
What can you recommend instead?
Hard to make a recommendation without knowing what problem you’re trying to solve. DEVONthink’s feature set is so broad that it overlaps with a lot of different apps. Alternatives for using it as an everything bucket are going to be very different from alternatives to it as a note taking app.
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This recently discussed on the DEVONthink forum. Suggest you look there and ask if necessary to get the best and correct advice.
Not as note taking app, I am in love with Tinderbox because of it visual centric approach which is best for me. It is interesting to hear about more stable alternative to Devonthink in terms of raw data storage with similar automation for classification and fast search. What I like about Devonthink also is ability to immediately see search results inside documents in same window. I only heard about Foxtrot but as I understood less people use it and therefore it is more risky to try it.
I did ask there, and nobody really replied to address that question, so I figured I’d try here instead.
If you pay to upgrade to DT3 shouldn’t you still have your DT2 key? I am open to correction but I can’t think of software that locks you out of the old version when you pay for an upgrade.
as a customer suggest you contact their support directly, then.
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