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I scan all documents with a ScanSnap scanner connected to my mac and they are OCR'd immediately -- this is very efficient and fast. Scanned documents go direct

I scan all documents with a ScanSnap scanner connected to my mac and they are OCR'd immediately -- this is very efficient and fast. Scanned documents go directly into DevonThink ( https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink ). DevonThink has a database of all my documents and keeps it indexed/searchable). I have a Synology NAS set up with a WebDAV share. DevonThink syncs my document database with the Synology NAS via WebDAV automatically. I have several macs and mobile devices that use DevonThink -- each one configured to sync with my NAS. That way every single document can be found and accessed on any of my devices (via VPN). In addition, I can add a document to devonthink from any device and it will be sync'd to the NAS and accessible on all other devices. The NAS has a HyperBackup task to back up my encrypted document database to BackBlaze B2, which is very cost effective. This set up allows me to access all of my documents and search them from all of my devices. And my documents are not at risk of being lost because they are stored on the NAS (with redundant drives) and also backed up to cloud. It's been working great for years. I have tried multiple times to ditch DevonThink, because i'd prefer to have a web application running on the NAS itself to manage document storage/database. But nothing comes close to devonthink IMO. And since I use a mac/ios devices, it's fine. But this solution would not work for windows/linux/android users.

gwbas1c 5y ago
I also have a SnapScan, but I never heard of DevonThink. How does it compare to just sticking pdfs in folders? (That's what I currently do.) What are the advantages of using DevonThink over manual sorting?
- boringg 5y ago
  Ok this snapscan thing -- I've seen it mentioned a couple times. Why is it so good?
  - jasonwaters 5y ago
    ScanSnap is good because you can set a stack of papers (dozens) in the paper feed tray, push a button, and all the papers will be scanned, OCR'd and a PDF created for you. It takes the pain away from scanning because all you have to do is insert stack of papers press 1 button, done. If you compare to a flat bed scanner (do people still use those?) or even a mobile device app scanner it is still faster every time.
- jasonwaters 5y ago
  Devonthink handles the syncing to NAS, and it also provides many other features for managing and organizing documents. I don't have the discipline to organize all my documents in folders. So instead I put it all in devonthink where i can easily search for document content or dates. I have documents for the past 10+ years that i can still find with a few keystrokes. But Devonthink isn't free and if you'd rather self-organize on the file system and search via spotlight, that works too. I actually didn't want any of my documents to be searchable via spotlight. When i want to search for documents, i use devonthink -- i like that everything is in a separate place. I also don't want my kids to do a spotlight search and find important documents that could be nuked. So separating them was a feature for me.
usefulcat 5y ago
I've been doing something very similar for nearly 10 years. I kept encountering documents that I might need later even though most of the time I would never need to look at them again. This way I can save all of them without having them take up any physical space. A down side is that initially there was a lot of scanning, but nowadays most documents are already electronic (e.g. credit car, bank statements) so I can just store them directly.
- jasonwaters 5y ago
  Same here, when i made the decision to go paperless I knew i wouldn't have the discipline to organize it all. So instead i opted to scan everything I thought i might want a record of and make it fully searchable. This way i can still find stuff easily and never have to organize it.
jesterson 5y ago
Came to write this. After trying multiple solutions Devonthink won. It's ages ahead of any competitors. Instead of NAS I'm having WebDAV storage on one of my cloud servers. All my devices are synced via it.

gwbas1c 5y ago

I also have a SnapScan, but I never heard of DevonThink. How does it compare to just sticking pdfs in folders? (That's what I currently do.) What are the advantages of using DevonThink over manual sorting?

boringg 5y ago
Ok this snapscan thing -- I've seen it mentioned a couple times. Why is it so good?
- jasonwaters 5y ago
  ScanSnap is good because you can set a stack of papers (dozens) in the paper feed tray, push a button, and all the papers will be scanned, OCR'd and a PDF created for you. It takes the pain away from scanning because all you have to do is insert stack of papers press 1 button, done. If you compare to a flat bed scanner (do people still use those?) or even a mobile device app scanner it is still faster every time.
jasonwaters 5y ago
Devonthink handles the syncing to NAS, and it also provides many other features for managing and organizing documents. I don't have the discipline to organize all my documents in folders. So instead I put it all in devonthink where i can easily search for document content or dates. I have documents for the past 10+ years that i can still find with a few keystrokes. But Devonthink isn't free and if you'd rather self-organize on the file system and search via spotlight, that works too. I actually didn't want any of my documents to be searchable via spotlight. When i want to search for documents, i use devonthink -- i like that everything is in a separate place. I also don't want my kids to do a spotlight search and find important documents that could be nuked. So separating them was a feature for me.

usefulcat 5y ago

I've been doing something very similar for nearly 10 years. I kept encountering documents that I might need later even though most of the time I would never need to look at them again. This way I can save all of them without having them take up any physical space. A down side is that initially there was a lot of scanning, but nowadays most documents are already electronic (e.g. credit car, bank statements) so I can just store them directly.

jasonwaters 5y ago
Same here, when i made the decision to go paperless I knew i wouldn't have the discipline to organize it all. So instead i opted to scan everything I thought i might want a record of and make it fully searchable. This way i can still find stuff easily and never have to organize it.

jesterson 5y ago

Came to write this. After trying multiple solutions Devonthink won. It's ages ahead of any competitors. Instead of NAS I'm having WebDAV storage on one of my cloud servers. All my devices are synced via it.