The major issue is that when the device goes to sleep, so does the syncing. With a lot of data, it can feel nearly impossible. With a lot of databases, this is a real pain point. DEVONthink, on the other hand, generally requires an app delete and reinstall when setting up a new device from a backup. iCloud just pulls everything down with no fuss. Where iCloud has an edge is in new device setup. With iCloud all of that is mostly hidden. I can also manually once a complete resync or recreate a sync-point. I can see what databases are currently syncing and I get a progress meter. It’s not a stark difference but it’s there.ĭEVONthink provides basic feedback on sync status but at a high level. It also seems to do all of this faster than DEVONthink using Dropbox. In my experience, iCloud starts syncing as soon as the app is open and shows a representation of the file until it finishes downloading the full object.

While I trust Apple and iCloud, given their history, I like the DEVONthink model better.Īs for performance, I think iCloud is faster but less predictable.

It has its own encrypted sync store which obfuscates everything from the middlemen. 1 The secret sauce with DEVONthink is that it’s not just using a Dropbox folder to hold the file objects. The Files app uses iCloud while DEVONthink To Go hangs off of Dropbox, Box, or WebDAV. The main reason to use the Files app or DEVONthink To Go is to sync data between devices. For some the differences may not warrant the extra expense so I’ll attempt to break down the good and the bad for each document syncing option.

After a few weeks I can say that it’s a good start but has a large gap when compared with the more feature complete DEVONthink To Go. As a longtime fan of DEVONthink on both the Mac and iOS I was skeptical of Apple’s new Files app for iOS.

Devonthink to go icloud sync