Database not syncing between iOS and macOS

[Richard]

I’m running all of the latest versions of Tap Forms across my iMac, MacBook, iPad and iPhone. I’ve had some sync issues before which resulted in my database ending up broken (random records just disappeared and no apparent way to recover them). I restored the database from an old back up and re-entered the data so it’s all up to date again.
However, my database doesn’t seem to sync across from the macOS devices to my iOS devices.

I backed up the database, disabled, deleted and then reenabled the iCloud sync on all devices but all I get is syncing between the macOS devices. Nothing is coming up on the iOS ones. I created a test document on my iPhone and that is now appearing on both my macOS devices but still not on the iPad.

I’ve checked that all of my devices are running on the same iCloud account and that Tap Forms has access to use the iCloud Drive but I’m still stumped as to why it’s not syncing properly.

[Brendan]

I would recommend rebooting all of your devices and see if that solves the problem.

When a change is made on one device, Tap Forms uploads those changes to Apple’s CloudKit servers. Then a push notification is sent to your other devices. I have seen sometimes where the push notification doesn’t get delivered to Tap Forms and a reboot is required to fix that. I’m not sure why that happens, but the reboot seems to clear that up.

Try that and see if it helps.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Richard]

Thanks Brendan

That seems to have worked. Although it seems that if I add any new forms I have to close and reopen the iOS apps for the new forms to appear.

One issue that hasn’t fixed though is that when I changed the name of one of my databases the new file name isn’t syncing across. e.g. I have 2 databases, for simplicity lets just call them “Database” and “Database 2.0”, which appear on all of my iOS and macOS devices.
I changed the name of “Database” to “Old Database” but the new name isn’t changing on any other device except for the one I changed it on, the other 3 are still showing the original file name. Rebooting doesn’t seem to change anything, is there something else I can do to get it to sync fully?

[Brendan]

That’s because the actual document itself doesn’t sync (except for the first placeholder). It’s the database on the inside that syncs. So you’ll just have to rename the document on each device. That won’t affect syncing. Make sure the documents are closed before you rename them. Don’t want to pull the rug out from underneath Tap Forms while the database is opened. Bad things can happen if you rename the document while the internal SQLite database is still opened.

[Laurent]

Hello Brendan,

I recently switched from Cloudant to iCloud sync (4 devices: 1 mac, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad)
Mac on 10.12.6
iDevices on 11.2.1

1) Changes on Mac do not automatically update on iDevices (even after waiting for several minutes). I have to force the sync by pulling down on the form view for the changes to update on the iDevices.

2) Changes on iDevices automatically update on Mac within seconds.

I have disabled iCloud sync on all, deleted the iCloud documents, then enabled iCould sync again on the master device (Mac), enabled iCould sync on all iDevices. But to no avail, I still encounter the same situation 1) & 2).

Would you please advise on how to have automatic sync in both direction? I have not had any issue with automatic sync with Cloudant since 2016.

Thanks a lot in advance,
Kind regards,

[Laurent]

Hello Brendan,

Do you have any feedback about my request ?

Thanks a lot.

[Brendan]

Hi Laurent,

My apologies, I did not see your post from the 18th, so that’s why I didn’t reply.

Well, it should just work, but I would suggest rebooting your iOS and Mac devices to see if that solves the problem.

I’ve seen where sometimes the CloudKit update notifications don’t come in to a device and rebooting solves the problem.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Laurent]

Hi Brendan,

No worry…

I have rebooted the idevices (off/on) and Mac, I have also reset the idevices (hold home & power button till the apple logo) but to no avail, I still have the same issues as described in 1) & 2).

Thanks!

[Author]

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