Continuing Problems with iCloud Sync

Hi Brendan,

Since upgrading to v3.1 on my iPhone my iCloud sync is broken again. Changes made on my phone sync back to my Mac. Changes on my Mac do not sync to my phone. I’ve tried every form of reset, including deleting the Ubiquity folder and Tap Forms folder within App Support? Containers… Can’t get it to play ball. Any ideas?

Thanks

Meant to include that my Mac version is 1.0.2… My happy syncing days were short lived after it’s release…

Hi Brendan,

Strangely, when I sync from my Mac this triggers the sync dialogue on my phone but the new data does not appear. I’ve tried various combinations: new record from mac, change to existing record on mac, new record from phone (this) appears on mac, change to new record on mac created on phone (change does not appear on phone)…

I get the feeling that data is syncing okay, but not being displayed in 3.1…

Regards

I have been investigating this issue today and I’m still not sure what’s causing it as I cannot reproduce the problem. I’ve taken a clean database on my Mac and iPhone and syncing is working between them. If I add a new form, it shows up on the other device. If I delete a record, it gets deleted on the other device, etc.

So I’m still looking into this issue.

Thanks,

Brendan

Brendan,
I do experience the same problems. I have latest versions on all devices. I used Tap Forms on iPhone 4s and created two forms (from which I only use one). I created some entries and they synced without problems with my OSX Mountain Lion. Vice versa. (Probably relatively short strings). This worked (I suggest at least) a few days. Both devices have the same amount of entries (77). Today I entered 22 entries with my Mac and pressed syncing on Mac, immediately notification showed up on iphone but no new entries appeared. I then clicked sync on iPhone … no success. I disabled sync on iPhone and reenabled and it told me it would sync, and some notifications showed suggesting that all would work. But the new entries still didn’t show up on iPhone. Then I entered one new entry on Mac (Mac has 100 entries now) but there doesn’t show notification on iPhone anymore.

Interesting is: on iPhone it shows the following: registered devices: Mac: last sync 17.12 23:37, iPhone: sync 17.12. 23:37
But when I open sync dialog on Mac:
there shows: registered devices: iPhone: last sync: NO ENTRY, Mac: last sync: 17.12 23:37

Could it be some of the following: Charset problem, Firewall, slow internet that Tap Forms on Mac not gracefully handles, long first field with more than 500 or 1000 chars,….

Please help. I have put important infrastructure on Tap Forms.

Brendan I too am experiencing this incredibly frustrating problem. Like the others I have tried everything to get my iphone, ipad and mac synced but alas it is not to be. TF on my mac displays the syncing dialog box saying that it is sync’ing but that’s it, it appears to have hung. I have the most recent versions of TF on all my devices.

Brendan I have said it before, your product is exactly what I have been looking for but I need a product that will reliably sync between my 3 devices. When my business relies on being able to access critical information stored in TF and I can’t access it, I have to really consider if TF is the ideal product for me.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE correct this most recent problem and restore my faith (and I am sure others) in your product!!

Rob

Is this still happening even with the latest 1.1 update for Mac that came out today? I’ve been testing with the release versions and I get syncing in both directions now.

Brendan

Do a Reset iCloud Sync on your iOS device. Then turn on iCloud sync again then click on the Sync Now button on the Mac. Your new records should come over again.

Brendan

Brendan I have updated to 1.1 on my mac (Iphone and ipad at latest release as well) and continue to experience serious problems with syncing. Unfortunately now when I try to sync TF on my mac it displays the syncing progress bar and hangs…..I let it run for close to 1 hour before forcing TF on the mac.

Any suggestions?

Rob

Hello J,

One of the problems I see with the steps you’ve done is you’re not giving iCloud a chance to sync the files. You tap sync on one device, then click sync on the other device right after. But that might only just mess up the process or make you think that it’s not syncing properly. You only need to click or tap the sync button on one device at a time. That is, click the Sync Now button on the Mac and wait for the iOS devices to automatically do a sync. There’s no need to tap on the sync button on the iOS devices until they’ve done an automatic sync.

Tap Forms uses a manual push, automatic pull process. That means if you make a change on one device, you push those changes to iCloud, then wait for iCloud to copy the files to the other devices. Tap Forms will get notified when the files are ready for it to process. Then you’ll see the “Processing Changes from iCloud” on your iOS devices appear automatically. On the Mac it just says Syncing briefly because it happens so fast on the Mac side.

Let me know if modifying your process to allow iCloud time to properly sync the files and for Tap Forms to process those files automatically improves your success rate.

In the last update it was necessary to do a Reset iCloud Sync this one time because the database schema was updated on the Mac version to match the iOS version.

Thanks,

Brendan

I was just screen sharing with a customer and explaining the whole process to him. When we tapped on the Reset iCloud sync button, it took over 5 minutes for that change to appear on his Mac. That part of the process is completely out of Tap Forms control. That is, once you’ve tapped on something such as the Reset iCloud Sync button or you’ve tapped on the Sync Now button (on either device), that change must be propagated to the other devices by iCloud itself. Tap Forms merely updates files in a folder on your device and it’s up to the operating system to take over from there. I’ve seen it take 20 minutes for a device to be registered. Not from anything that I’m doing wrong or slow code or anything, but from the operating system taking that long to send the file to iCloud or for the other devices to download from iCloud.

So that’s why it’s important to let iCloud do its thing and to not be too over zealous in tapping on the Sync buttons in Tap Forms. It’s best to just do one sync at a time. Once that is followed you’ll find that syncing goes much smoother.

I hope to add an automatic push in a future update at some point. But even if I did, changes wouldn’t happen on your other devices immediately because it can take time for the operating system to sync the files I create with iCloud.

Thanks,

Brendan

Hi Rob,

I haven’t experienced the hanging while syncing issue. I’ve done hundreds of syncs and never once has it hung on me doing that. I suspect it could be something up with the iCloud folder that’s assigned to Tap Forms on your account.

Try this:

1. First make a backup of all your Tap Forms data on each device.
2. Go to the iCloud Sync settings in Tap Forms and tap on Reset iCloud Sync. Do this while all devices have Tap Forms launched.
3. When all devices disappear from the list of Registered Devices (on each device), go to the iCloud System Preferences on your Mac.
4. Click on the Manage button.
5. Click on Tap Forms.
6. Click on the Delete All button. This will delete all the Tap Forms data stored in iCloud. This includes any sync files generated by syncing, photos, file attachments, audio recordings, and drawings. Your database is stored locally, so it won’t affect that. But please make sure you have a backup before doing this.
7. Once all the files are gone from the Tap Forms iCloud area, click on the Enable iCloud Sync checkbox on your Mac.
8. Wait for it to appear. Should happen right away.
9. Go to the iCloud Sync area in Tap Forms on iOS.
10. Tap on the Enable iCloud Sync button. You should have already seen the Mac showing there. The iOS device should also show there now.
11. Look back on your Mac to see if your iOS device shows up there. You may need to close and re-open the popover for the display to refresh.
12. Click on the Sync Now button on your Mac.
13. Wait for the sync to complete on your iOS device. You should see “Processing Changes from iCloud”. If you don’t, then wait longer.
14. Tap on the Sync button on your iOS device. Tap Forms Mac should eventually show the syncing message.

That’s it.

To look at the files that are being generated each time you sync, please visit this folder on your Mac:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/FXLPHZS84D~com~clickspace~tapforms

You can get there by using the Finder’s “Go to Folder…” menu item under the Go menu. Just copy and paste that path in there.

Inside that folder is your Documents, a device identifier file, and the SyncDocuments folder. Open up the SyncDocuments folder and you’ll see the files being created when your device gets registered and when you click and tap on the sync now buttons on each device.

I hope this helps you out.

Thanks,

Brendan

My syncing is working now, at least with my test forms. I need to throw an ipad and mpro into the mix next.

I had also syncing problems and figured out what worked for me.
First, i disabled the iCloud Sync on all devices (iPhone, iPad, iMac). Then on the iPhone i used the “Reset iCloud Sync” function and then enabled the Sync again on the iPhone. After a while i enabled the Sync on the other devices and now it works for me.

But there is one thing to remember – if i made changes on any device i have to start the iCloud sync after that manually to propagate my changes to the other devices. So if i make changes on all 3 devices i have to start the sync on each. So if you edit the same field i a form on more then one device, the first one which sends it to the cloud wins.

But sometimes the Mac-app got stuck and the sync was not submitted.
Until now i was not able to find out how to reactivate the iCloud Sync in the Mac App…
(Sometimes it happens to work again.)

Brendan I tried exactly what you suggested and while my two ios devices synced they still are not in sync with TF on the mac.

I am very very frustrated at this point. Do you have any other suggestions.

Rob

I find it can take some time for iCloud to register the syncs. I am only using an iPhone and iPad but being in Australia it is using iCloud at a different time to most of you guys which may or may not make a difference. Two months ago it could take a whole day to register a change but now it usually syncs within an hour or two. However I leave it overnight to be sure.