How to Sync by Wire

Bonjour is a wonderful technology that allows us to connect to devices or services by name instead of a hard to remember IP address, a number that can and does change! Imagine your street address changing every so often. People would have to keep updating their address books or never be able to find you! When you add a new scanner or printer to your network, it most likely uses Bonjour to let your devices know it’s available and accessible with little effort.

DEVONthink and DEVONthink To Go offer an option to sync via a Bonjour connection on a local network. Used Mac-to-Mac or Mac-to-mobile, it’s a fast machine-to-machine option for syncing. However, Bonjour isn’t always allowed on public or corporate networks. Some coffee shops or restaurants don’t allow Bonjour devices as they don’t want people, potentially maliciously, connecting to other peoples’ machines. Also corporations do everything they can to monitor and control devices on their networks. Random devices popping up on their networks don’t make the IT department very happy!

Here’s a way to use this sync technology between DEVONthink and DEVONthink To Go, regardless of the environment’s limitation: If you connect your iOS device to your Mac via Lightning or USB-C cable (the standard cable you use to connect your iPad or iPhon) to your Mac), Bonjour functions perfectly. The cable essentially acts as its own ad-hoc network. Not only that — it’s also extremely fast and private!

For more information on setting up Bonjour, check out the Sync section in the built-in help or manual for each application. It’s really as simple as setting up one machine as the Bonjour server and adding the server as a sync location in the sync preferences on the other devices.