DEVONthink for Mac

After a lot of tinkering, working and testing, we can finally make it official: DEVONthink 4 is now in public beta. Our new generation of DEVONthink is more modern, smarter, and comes with countless new features — from support for generative AI models to versioning and audit-proof databases. We’ve also improved the text editors, created new automation capabilities, completely rewritten the web interface, redesigned the help, and much more.

Have a look at our website to learn more about what's new in DEVONthink 4 and how you can get it!

In DEVONthink 3.9.9, we added support for `.highland` files and introduced a new two-digit year placeholder. We continue to improve Markdown editing, including better parsing and WYSIWYG support. You can now display item links in web content as highlighted text when used, and when you copy annotations from the Annotations inspector, they include tabular data for creating sheets. We made keyboard navigation and creation of new records in sheets faster, synchronizing imports encrypted databases as such, and we made further changes to improve syncing with some WebDAV services. Lastly, we again improved reliability and performance.

New

• Added `.highland` to the list of supported TextBundle extensions.
• A new `%shortYear%` placeholder is now available, e.g., for templates and smart items.

Improved

• The syntax coloring, for, e.g., XML or WYSIWYG Markdown editing is faster and more reliable.
• Better WYSIWYG appearance and applying of formatting like bold, underline, etc., in Markdown editing. The Table of Contents inspector now correctly displays sub/superscript and underlining, and the Document > Annotations inspector no longer ignors underlined, strikethrough, and highlighted section headers as well as sections with sub/superscripted text.
• WYSIWYG Markdown editing is more reliable, including in the Annotations & Reminders inspector.
• You can now include `./` in relative links for assets located in the same group as the Markdown document.
• When the setting Editing > Smart copy/paste is disabled, pasting already Markdown-formatted text and rich text without images is inserted as Markdown.
• The size of headings in WYSIWYG Markdown now more closely match the rendered preview.
• Syntax highlighting via Prism now supports Awk, C#, Lisp, and Rust.
• Markdown and HTML documents with links to items in the database can now be more reliably converted to formatted notes.
• Underlined text in rich text documents converts to Markdown more consistently and shows up in the Table of Contents inspector.
• Copying selections of text and images from a Word document now pastes as text and embedded images instead of using the PDF representation on the clipboard.
• DEVONthink better honors PDF permissions across the board, including in the Properties inspector.
• Edits to sheets update and automatically scroll when pressing (⇧)↩. Additionally, you can use the up or down arrow keys to select the same cell in the previous or next row, provided the contents of the current cell is selected or the insertion mark is at the beginning or end of the cell.
• `.strings` documents now display as plain text.
• Changes to the colors in a plain text document no longer change the plain text font and background colors in the Editing settings. This allows for using temporary color schemes.
• Identical stylesheets found in EPUB documents are merged when converting to HTML or formatted notes, reducing the resulting file size. Additionally, the HTML code has been optimized.
• Web archives produced by converting EPUB documents or formatted notes are smaller and created more quickly.
• Web-based documents having a URL with an anchor now jump to the anchored section when opened.
• While DEVONthink is running, opening an imported document externally and changing its name updates the path and name in the database.
• The Publisher of audio and video files is now indexed and searchable, if present.
• Expanded compatibility of RSS feeds.
• Item link bookmarks now support the `reveal=1` parameter when linking to groups, smart groups, and RSS feeds. Double-clicking the bookmark reveals the item.
• The `search=` URL parameter in item links is more compatible to Markdown's syntax and has better percent-encoding.
• Item Links now support text fragments, allowing text to be highlighted when visiting the linked resource. The end of the URL follows this convention: `/#:~:text=URL encoded text`, e.g, `x-devonthink-item://5E1CED13-4ACA-4988-A93D-DEF13F3FC5D7/#:~:text=close%20all%20documents`.
• Dragging the proxy icon of a window to other applications is now disallowed for imported files as the receiving application could move the file. Dragging the icon within DEVONthink and dragging externally for indexed files is still supported.
• Toolbar searching now supports `item:downloaded` and `item:!downloaded`. Note these produce the same results as `item:!pending` and `item:pending`.
• The search syntax supports date ranges using the format `prefix:YYYY-MM-DD-YYYY-MM-DD`, e.g. `created:2023-01-01-2024-12-31`.
• When no inspectors are open, document windows can be made more narrow.
• Apple Intelligence's writing tools no longer appear in the item list or sidebars.
• Copying selected annotations in the Document > Annotations inspector includes the data to create a new sheet.
• You can now preview linked images in Markdown documents via the Document > Attachments inspector, provided the view/edit pane is open and the images are local, i.e., in the database, filesystem, or embedded in `data:` URLs.
• The Document > Links inspector now supports Markdown documents with images stored as `data:`.
• Markdown attachments are listed by line number in the Document > Attachments inspector.
• The Bates Number column in a sheet created by the Tools > Create Metadata Overview command now uses an Integer data type.
• The Addition Date is now included with the File > Export > Metadata (JSON) and Tools > Create Metadata Overview commands.
• Tools > Split PDF > Into Chapters will now split a PDF document having a table of contents with only one entry or if the first entry isn't on the first page.
• You can now use the Go > To Last Destination command after adding files via drag-and-drop or creating a new document via Data > New > With Clipboard.
• Convert categories to tags in the RSS settings is now disabled by default.
• Name editor dialogs, e.g., via the `display name editor` AppleScript command, now have a larger maximum width.
• Encrypted databases can be more reliably unmounted in instances where an item is being viewed via Quick Look or multimedia files are being played.
• Grouping or merging items uses a better name when their titles include the same words.
• Indexing some third-party formats with Spotlight importers, e.g., XMIND files, is more reliable.
• DEVONthink detects document dates and amounts more reliably.
• `about:` URLs are ignored when adding or creating documents.
• For consistency, the "DEVONthink 3: Create Markdown Document" service is now DEVONthink 3: Take Markdown Note.
• Reorganized Help menu for clarity.
• AppleScript errors are better handled.
• To avoid stalling the application, the Add to DEVONthink service now imports files and folders in the background.
• Improved consistency of localizations.
• Overall improved performance.

Improved (Server)

• The web interface better handles permissions when dealing with read-only databases, e.g., ones locked in the Finder.
• Improved web server logging.

Improved (Sync)

• Downloading encrypted databases now imports them in their encrypted state by default. You can still import them unencrypted from the action or context menu, if needed.
• To improve syncing with CloudMe and LuckyCloud, DEVONthink uses fewer connections and attempts to retry more often.
• RSS articles are automatically marked as read and merged if another article with the same name and URL has already been read.

Fixed

• Markdown documents with linked images could throw an exception on rare occasion. Fixed.
• Relatively linked images didn't work in indexed Markdown documents. Fixed.
• Images linked from the macOS home directory wouldn't display in rendered Markdown. Fixed.
• WikiLinks weren't detected in Markdown blockquotes. Fixed.
• The background and font colors in WYSIWYG Markdown editing didn't always update with changes made in Settings > Editing or when switching between light and dark mode. Fixed.
• Markdown WYSIWYG editing could sometimes cause visual artifacts, e.g., with blockquotes. Fixed.
• Lines with an odd number of code block characters could break syntax coloring. Fixed.
• Markdown documents didn't always show the last reading position when viewed in WYSIWYG mode. Fixed.
• Parsing Markdown metadata could cause issues with WYSIWYG editing, the content of the Info > Properties inspector, and indexing its content. Fixed.
• When switching from side-by-side to source view in Markdown documents, the source could appear empty if the preview contained videos. Fixed.
• Switching Markdown documents to side-by-side view did not always restore the last visible or selected text. Fixed.
• An incorrect failure message was logged when converting Markdown documents to formatted notes. Fixed.
• Syntax coloring and WYSIWYG editing in Markdown caused scrollbar issues when first opening a document. Fixed.
• Shifting lines in text up or down via hotkeys was not undoable. Fixed.
• Using the Search inspector on a PDF could cause the document to be marked as modified on macOS Sequoia. Fixed.
• Converting PDF documents to other formats, e.g., formatted notes or Markdown, didn't reliably work on macOS Sequoia. Fixed.
• Apple's PDFKit framework could throw an exception on macOS Sequoia. Fixed.
• Two attempts were necessary to change the highlighting of selected highlighted text in rich text and PDF documents. Fixed.
• The context menu commands for PDF annotations were in an incorrect order. Fixed.
• Annotating PDFs could throw an exception. Fixed.
• Text in sheets could sometimes display the wrong colors. Fixed.
• The shortcut to open the Search inspector, ⌘F, didn't work when viewing a sheet as a table. Fixed.
• HTML pages with relative links to items in a database didn't always display properly. Fixed.
• In very rare cases, HTML files having no character set defined or an UTF encoding with non-ASCII characters would appear empty. Fixed.
• The URL of a modified HTML file could change to `about:blank` when saving on recent versions of macOS. Fixed.
• Custom icons on documents could be overwritten with standard thumbnails when the files were edited externally. Fixed.
• The Navigation Bar could show an internal `applewebdata:` URL when viewing HTML files. Fixed.
• EPUB files couldn't be converted to web archives. Fixed.
• With locked bookmarks, the URL > Paste and URL > Remove commands in the Info > Generic inspector weren't disabled. Fixed.
• Collapsed groups could sometimes appear expanded after opening a window to the same location or relaunching the application in widescreen view. Fixed.
• When groups, smart groups, or RSS feeds were visible in the item list, double-clicking the separator in Column view didn't always resize the column. Fixed.
• Using the Quick Look panel in search results or the item list in Icon view could throw an exception. Fixed.
• Modal dialogs, e.g., from Data > New > Bookmark, didn't close if they were invoked when a document window was frontmost. Fixed.
• When choosing a date-related criterion in the advanced search editor, the raw query value in the toolbar search included an extraneous colon. Fixed.
• Some interface items, e.g., toolbar buttons, displayed visual artifacts on macOS Sequoia. Fixed.
• The scope bar of a toolbar search didn't display properly when the window was too narrow. Fixed.
• After doing a toolbar search, automatically highlighting the first search hit in a document could throw an exception. Fixed.
• Document windows with multiple tabs didn't display a window title. Fixed.
• Multi-line Finder comments displayed incorrectly in the item list while in List view. Fixed.
• After toggling the sidebar on and off, the view/edit pane didn't display correctly. Fixed.
• Multiple document windows displaying the same kind of file, e.g., images, incorrectly retained the same internal window settings. Fixed.
• Detached popovers could be "lost" offscreen in some multi-monitor situations. They are now moved to the visible screen on application launch. Fixed.
• The sizes of the smart rule editor and batch processing windows weren't retained. Fixed.
• Page thumbnails in the Thumbnails inspector weren't updated after deactivating the inspector, window, or application on the lastest versions of macOS.
• Go > Move Focus to Inspector and the (⇧)⌃⇥ hotkeys didn't switch to the Document or Thumbnails inspectors. Fixed.
• Images and attachments in rich text annotation files didn't open externally when double-clicked in the Annotations & Reminders inspector. Fixed.
• In the Annotations & Reminders inspector, selecting highlighted text in rich text annotation files used the wrong color. Fixed.
• Creating or editing annotation files in the Annotations & Reminders inspector could throw an exception, e.g., when changing the format. Fixed.
• Links clicked in the Annotations & Reminders inspector while the view/edit pane isn't visible would open the link in an external application but not activate that app. Fixed.
• Using the Insert Summarized Annotations command in the Annotations & Reminders inspector could sometimes produce inconsistent results. Fixed.
• Markdown blockquotes didn't work correctly in the Annotations & Reminders inspector. Fixed.
• The Contents > Table of Contents inspector could unnecessarily use resources when edits were made to documents affecting it, especially large Markdown documents. Fixed.
• The context menu in the Thumbnails inspector wasn't correct. Fixed.
• The Document and Search inspectors showed some visual artifacts in dark mode. Fixed.
• The Document > Links inspector didn't display the name of outgoing Markdown links. Fixed.
• The Document > Mentions inspector didn't include all mentions from Markdown content. Fixed.
• In certain instances, the Occurrences pane in the Document > Mentions inspector displayed square brackets from Markdown file and image links. Fixed.
• The Mentions inspector incorrectly showed matches for archives, e.g., ZIP files. Fixed.
• The Occurrences pane in the Mentions inspector displayed incorrectly when using dark mode and macOS' Accessibility > Display > Reduce transparency option. Fixed.
• When searching for multiple unquoted words, not all found words were highlighted in the content of web-based documents when Enable operators & wildcards in the Search inspector was enabled. Fixed.
• The Search inspector could incorrectly list occurrences from the unrendered source of web-based documents, e.g., formatted notes, web archives, etc. Fixed.
• The Data > Tags > Convert Keywords to Tags and Convert Properties to Tags commands didn't work when only one document was selected. Fixed.
• The Tools > Create Expense Report command wasn't marked as a Pro feature but should have been since it requires custom metadata. Fixed.
• The context menu of the item list wasn't handled consistently when the application or its windows were inactive or in the background. Fixed.
• The Sorter incorrectly displayed when capturing tall, thin screen captures. Fixed.
• Key commands for switching views in the Sorter didn't work and the tab order in the Take Note and Clip To DEVONthink views was incorrect. Fixed.
• Certain user interface elements in the Sorter didn't update when changing the system appearance, e.g., from dark to light mode. Fixed.
• Closing the Settings while a shortcut control was active could crash the application. Fixed.
• Renaming an indexed document package outside DEVONthink could cause the file extension to be added to the internally stored name. Fixed.
• Searches using double-quoted phrases stopped working correctly. Fixed.
• Complex searches using wildcards, proximity operators, and parentheses didn't always work correctly. Fixed.
• When creating an encrypted database, manually adding the `.dtSparse` extension would lead to an incorrect filename. Fixed.
• The bug reporting mechanism incorrectly listed the temporary path of encrypted databases (`.sparseimage`) instead of its permanent path (`.dtSparse`). Fixed.
• Link names in documents with item links where the names have a trailing parenthesis, e.g., `Taxes (2023)`, wouldn't be updated. Fixed.
• Records created via scripts and smart templates could incorrectly include the file extension in the name. Fixed.
• The AppleScript commands `create thumbnail` and `update thumbnail` reported false even if the operation was successful. Fixed.
• These commands didn't retain some internal resources from the database: File > Export > Database Archive, Scripts > Export > Daily Backup Archive, as well as the AppleScript commands `backup database` and `compress database`. Fixed.
• Some descriptions in DEVONthink's AppleScript dictionary were incorrect. Fixed.

Fixed (Standard)

• The Data > Group Similar Items menu command was incorrectly shown. Fixed.
• The template "Track Habit" and the script "Update Indexed Items" were not available in the support assistant. Fixed.

Fixed (Pro)

• The date popover was misaligned in the Info > Custom inspector and the form view of sheets. Fixed.
• Toolbar searches, smart groups, and smart rules didn't find Number: Decimal custom metadata when set to negative values. Fixed.
• Indexed PDFs didn't retain their annotations or table of contents after OCR. Fixed.
• On versions of macOS previous to Sequoia, the Import > Emails sidebar didn't always show correctly when the window was too small. Fixed.
• The dialog warning about doing OCR on a document with an existing text layer appeared under open windows. Fixed.
• The buttons to change numbers were not correctly aligned in the Form view of sheets or the Info > Custom inspector on the latest versions of macOS. Fixed.

Fixed (Server)

• Concurrent access to the web interface could crash the app on rare occasion. Fixed.
• The web interface could sometimes return invalid JSON for custom metadata. Fixed.
• Not all available TLS certificates in Keychain Access were listed in the TLS Certificate dropdown of the Server > General settings. Fixed.
• The web interface login page didn't appear consistently when the guest account was enabled or disabled.

Removed

• Reminders > Add as To Do to The Hit List.
• Unsupported Text Style option from the annotation popover.
• Legacy AppleScript command `backup database … to … including files`. This functionality is found in the current `compress database` and `export record` commands.