Forum Discussion
Files On-Demand for macOS QA
I agree 100%, and it's nice to see that you named DEVONthink there. I also use this program with indexed files that are in my OneDrive folder, and I am very nervous about something going wrong. Do you have any information/suggestions about dealing with this issue in DEVONthink?
Also, what exactly is the situation with other Cloud services i.e. Dropbox? I have read that they will also experience problems, esp. with Monterrey 12.3, but do you know if other cloud storage/sync providers have developed solutions to this?
Thanks!
YaYaTurre There has recently been a thread at DEVONtechnologies' forum about the impact that the changed behaviour of OneDrive may have on DEVONthink if you are indexing files. DT's development team does not consider this to be a significant issue currently as they have mechanisms in place to detect broken paths to files but there is no definite official stance on this yet. The thread is on https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/changing-onedrive-behaviour-watch-out-if-indexing/69002.
Most of my databases have imported files (except for one database, which also indexes files in OneDrive and which has been fine so far), so if you are concerned about this, for the time being, you may consider switching to importing instead of indexing files. However, I don't think you would lose any files indexed in DEVONthink, and everything will probably be fine, should anything happen, when you fix/update the path to indexed files. The worst that can (probably) happen is that the files would be unavailable to DT until "downloaded" from OD's cache again.
However, I agree that the new OD behaviour results in an uncomfortable uncertainty if you just want to make sure your files are local and available to all the apps you may be using.
Dropbox is currently in beta with the Apple Silicon optimised client, and https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support that they will have more information on the impact of macOS 12.3 and File Provider when the next beta rolls out in March.
Google Drive currently works fine, as it does not rely on deprecated Kernel extensions, so it may not be impacted by changes (this remains to be seen). Still, it's 'all or nothing' there as the new client has lost the selective sync ability when it was released last year, so you either use file streaming (= files on demand) or sync everything to the Mac (you cannot select just a couple of folders).
However, there also seem to be issues around Spotlight and indexing; see https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Workspace-Discussions/Mac-Spotlight-not-indexing-Google-Drive-files-in-desktop/m-p/167774/highlight/true#M662. The way I understand this, this impacts primarily files that are streamed and not available locally, similar to current OneDrive issues. I have not been actively using Google Drive for a couple of years now, but I have just tested it in the past week and Spotlight seems to be indexing and finding files that have been mirrored locally i.e. downloaded to the Mac.