Sonny Software

Hi, I'm struggling with iCloud sync, and attachments in general.

As soon as I drag a pdf into Bookends I see it appear (with pdf preview) in my library as expected, but then the pdf becomes detached. I'm using iCloud and renaming the attachments.

Finding the pdfs on iCloud is a real pain, the folder is not visible in Finder even if it has files as claimed in the manual. By luck some of my references had pdfs still attached and 'Show Attachments in Finder' opens the right folder named 'Bot' supposedly in iCloud (my prefs have this as /Users/alexei/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~sonnysoftware~bot/Documents but I can't navigate to it outside bookends, even with cmd-g). There's files in there, but I have to manually click on a download icon next to the filenames before bookends reattaches them. If the files get renamed I have to manually download again. Using the Attach menu item brings up iCloud but you can't get the the bookends folder. Am I missing some setting somewhere that makes this all so convoluted?

Also, I've ended up with files all over the place from when I was testing. I was probably leaving them in place instead of copying to the library. This has thrown up a potentially nasty bug - if I now rename the files, Bookends will happily rename the pdfs that where left in place breaking the links in other databases like devonthink, zotero, and papers. Perhaps there should be a warning somewhere for this, or have bookends only rename pdf under its control. Is there a way of copying across those files to Bookends folder? Consolidate Attachments talks about moving files rather than copying which would break other databases.

Are you using Bookends for iOS? If yes, the correct folder with icon Bookends icon should be created by macOS automatically.
If there is no Bookends folder (with Bookends icon) on iCloud Drive on Mac, but it's there in iCloud Drive (Files.app) on iOS please use a helper app from this thread.

If macOS only is used then don't use "iCloud Folder For iOS Sync" and create a folder manually in any cloud service and set a path to it in Bookends Preferences.

Thanks for the link to the app, that worked!

It was really weird, first of all I had "Optimise Mac Storage" on in iCloud which meant a whole lot of file's were not getting downloaded automatically. With it off I still couldn't see the folder. Tried dragging files into it and creating files via the command line and still didn't work. Even worse if I renamed an attachment in Bookends I could see it happen in iCloud folder, then a little cloud icon appeared as it got uploaded, then a cloud-with-arrow icon telling me it was in the cloud but not downloaded, at which point the attachment link broke in bookends!

Running that app fixed it all, would love to know the magic sauce in that script

Incidentally it's possible to index the Bookends iCloud folder in DevonThink Pro now...

Also, as an added bonus the files in Bookends are annotatable in Apple's Files app on the iPad. The annotations are semi-editable back in bookends iOS and mac. It's a bit hit an miss, e.g. pencil marks can't be edited or deleted, speech-bubble shape get's transformed to rectangle, plain notes and highlights seem editable. Would be nice to have compatibility but not a big issue.