Can't figure out how to get large TF document to iPhone

[Kyle Jeremy]

Hello! We were former Bento users who finally bit the bullet to upgrade and we are thrilled with Tap Forms so far. We use it to enter in simple records of objects with date/time/description. While we have a small number of records (about 2600) they all have 1 high-resolution photo attached making the database just north of 2GB.

I created a CouchDB server and can sync between two MacBook Airs without issue, the trouble is with the 1 iPhone we’re trying to sync- for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to get the initial database on there!?

I’ve tried putting it in iCloud, Dropbox, etc., but when I go to try and “import a backup” from the iOS app, it sort of does nothing and no file name is listed in the field, even though I can see the 2GB file in both Dropbox and iCloud. (And marked the file for “offline” so it was already downloaded.)

I’ve tried using the “-> send to” device button and it starts to work, but typically times out after about 5-10 minutes.

Any thoughts on what I can do so that I can have the same database ID on my iPhone to connect it to the CouchDB for syncing? Maybe I could make a version of the database and strip out all the photos or something to shrink it down?

Many thanks for any advice and a great overall product.

[Brendan]

Hi Kyle,

If you have the latest Tap Forms 5.2.2 for Mac and Tap Forms 5.2.1 for iOS, then you should be able to use the Send Document function without it timing out hopefully. Although I haven’t tested with a file that big before.

Another way to transfer the file over is to use iTunes File Sharing. Just plug your iOS device into your computer, fire up iTunes, then click on your device. Look for the File Sharing function on the left and click on it. Find Tap Forms in the list of apps. Then click on it. You’ll see a panel on the right that says “Tap Forms Documents”.

Drag your .tapforms document from your Mac over to that Tap Forms Documents area. Then restart Tap Forms on the iOS device or navigate into a folder and then back to refresh the display. I’m referring to the main Documents view on the iOS version of Tap Forms.

Hope that helps!

Also, if you don’t need the images to be quite so high resolution, the Mac version has a Resize All Photos function on the Photo field on the inspector panel on the right. You can choose from a variety of sizes and input a quality value. Then click the Resize All Photos button. Once you’ve done that, go to the Maintenance panel on the Preferences window and click the Compact Database button. That’ll shrink the size of the database document. You can save quite a bit of space doing that.

Thanks!

Brendan

[1Levite]

Kyle:

For what it’s worth, when transferring my 1.5 GB TF document to iPhone, I need to keep the phone awake during the transfer otherwise the transfer might lockup/fail/freeze. An occasional screen tickle during transfer does the trick for me.

[Brendan]

1Levite,

Is that the same case for the new AirDrop feature for sending a document to another device?

[1Levite]

I don’t know for sure. I used the AirDrop the other day, and was so used to keeping the phone awake I didn’t think of letting it sleep. I will point out that airdrop was WAY faster than the previous copy method and I’m not sure that the phone would trigger a sleep in the time it took to AirDrop. I’ll give it a try next time and report back.

[1Levite]

OK I tried it. About 75% through the 1.5GB Air Drop transfer, the phone dimmed and went to sleep. Then a notification popped up over the lock screen saying that Air Drop was sharing information, and several seconds later, the phone was black and sleeping again. The iMac AirDrop pop-up continued to indicate Sending was taking place. Resisting the temptation to wake the phone I waited until the sharing/copying was completed.

So, I don’t need to keep it awake any longer.

[Brendan]

Excellent! That’s great to know! Ya, it’s definitely way faster than the MultipeerConnectivy framework I was using before.

[Kyle Jeremy]

I am *so* sorry I didn’t get a chance to reply to this sooner, but first and foremost, THANK YOU for responding so quickly with so many suggestions! I agree it’s weird that we weren’t able to make it work with the built in methods, but what ultimately did the trick for us was using the iTunes File Sharing, which I didn’t even know existed!?

It worked great and we’ve been up an running using that method and CouchDB for syncing since last week. We are SUPER happy with Tap Forms overall and it is such an improvement in so many ways over Bento, I just wish we had upgraded sooner!

FTR, the one thing I didn’t try was AirDrop. (I did initially try AirDrop, but it was on version 9 (!!!) of iOS, so I sort of expected it to fail. I should have tried again after upgrading iOS, but forgot to do so.)

[Brendan]

Hi Kyle,

That’s great to hear!

AirDrop is pretty nice. Especially when sending to an iOS device. When sending to a Mac, the file lands in the Downloads folder which isn’t quite as friendly as when sending to iOS. When you send to iOS, Tap Forms automatically launches and shows the file on the main Documents screen. Nice!

Thanks!

Brendan

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