iCloud Sync Settings Shows "!"

[HappyTapper]

Hi Brendan, apologies if this has been asked before. Did a quick search, couldn’t find anything. In Sync settings on my iPhone, the iCloud icon at the top of the page shows a cloud with an exclamation mark in it and I can’t enable iCloud sync. I’m currently syncing to CloudAnt and as you know, it’s being sunset. Thanks

[Brendan]

That’s not actually an “!”, it’s a lowercase “i” character. It was just my way of distinguishing Cloudant from iCloud. It’s a cloud with a little i inside it.

Cloudant isn’t being discontinued though. They just want you to move over to their IBM Cloud service. I wrote up instructions on how to do that in the online user manual here:

https://www.tapforms.com/help-mac/5/en/topic/ibm-cloudant-sync

But to switch to iCloud, just first click the Sign Out button on the Cloudant screen. Then click the Enable Sync button on the iCloud screen. Wait for Tap Forms to completely finish uploading to iCloud. Then close and re-open the document. Wait again if you see any sync messages. Then do the same on the next device.

Thanks,

Brendan

[HappyTapper]

Thanks for the help. Based on feedback from your users, which one provides a more consistent experience, iCLoud or IBM’s services?

Thanks

[Brendan]

They each have their pros and cons. iCloud is great because it’s easy to use and most iOS and Mac customers already have it.

IBM Cloud is great because it’s fast and allows you to sync with other customers.

IBM Cloud is not great if you have attachments to sync because in their new world order they’ve decided to impose a 1 MB limit on request sizes. When syncing attachments in Tap Forms, generally they end up being larger than 1 MB, so will generate an error.

There’s also Apache CouchDB which is great because it’s just like IBM Cloud, but you control it yourself so there’s no restrictions on attachment size and it’s open-source software, so it’s free. You just need to find a place to host it, such as on your own computer or on a shared cloud service, such as 1and1.com or Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services, etc.

[HappyTapper]

Hey Brendan. I signed out of Cloudant but the Enable iCloud Sync isn’t selectable for me. Thanks.

[Brendan]

Try closing your document and then opening it up again. Enable iCloud Sync should be selectable. (unless it’s already enabled).

[HappyTapper]

I can choose to Delete from iCloud but nothing appears to happen. There is a long string in the Database: field. I’m not sure what you mean about closing the document.

[Brendan]

There’s a (v) button at the top-left of some of the views on the iOS version that lets you close the database document. It takes you back to the main Documents view.

That’ll tell Tap Forms to stop syncing that document at that moment, then close the database.

Tap on it again to open it up.

If the Delete from iCloud button is enabled, that means the Enable iCloud Sync button should also be enabled. Clicking the Delete from iCloud button simply tells iCloud to delete that database document same name as the “long string in the Database: field” from your iCloud account. You only need to do that on one device and never while another device is still syncing with iCloud. The database document with that long ID name will be re-created in iCloud when you enable iCloud sync again.

[HappyTapper]

I’ve closed the document using the “V”. There’s no option for me to close the database if that’s what you meant. When I tap on it again, I still cannot get the Enable iCloud Sync to actually do anything. It’s same behaviour on both the iPad and iPhone. Any other suggestions?

[Brendan]

Does it say “Enable iCloud Sync” or “Disable iCloud Sync”?

Also, do you have iCloud Drive enabled on both those devices? If not, make sure you do. Although you won’t see anything get stored in your iCloud Drive, it’s still required to allow syncing with Apple’s CloudKit servers, which is what Tap Forms does.

[HappyTapper]

On the sync settings screen, I have two choices. 1) Enable iCloud Sync and 2) Delete from iCloud.

Yes iCloud Drive is enabled on both devices.

[HappyTapper]

Brendan, I still can’t choose to synchronize via iCloud. Any other suggestions?

[Brendan]

I really have not seen this problem before. If it says “Enable iCloud Sync”, then pressing it should just work. You should see an activity indicator spinner for a few seconds, then the button should change to “Disable iCloud Sync”. Why it’s not doing that for you I don’t know. And the fact that it’s behaving that way on both devices is very suspect too. Maybe there’s a problem with your iCloud account?

Did you try rebooting your devices?

Or sign-out of iCloud and sign back in? Or at the very least disable iCloud Drive and re-enable it?

[HappyTapper]

I did try signing in and out of iCloud. I think I’m going to stick with local WiFi sync. Just in case this might cause an epiphany, here’s the screen shot that shows the same “greyed” out button on both devices.

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[Brendan]

So I have code which checks to see if iCloud is available and if so, the button gets enabled. If not, the button gets disabled.

[[CKContainer containerWithIdentifier:kTFCloudKitContainerID] accountStatusWithCompletionHandler:^(CKAccountStatus accountStatus, NSError * _Nullable error) {		dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
		switch (accountStatus) {
			case CKAccountStatusAvailable:
				loginButton.enabled = YES;
				break;
			default:
				loginButton.enabled = NO;
				break;
		}
	});
}];

That’s the actual code I use. So basically your iCloud account status is NOT coming back as being available, so Tap Forms is disabling the button.

Why that’s the case on your devices, I do not know. It’s still very strange that it’s the case on both devices.

Do you have any kind of restrictions enabled on your devices?

[HappyTapper]

Yes Brendan, that was it. For some reason, iCloud use was disabled on both devices for TapForms. Not sure why. I’m thinking perhaps the last iOS update turned this off. Anyway, thanks for the tip, as soon as you mentioned that, I checked and there it was – off.

[Brendan]

Ah excellent!

I’m glad it was something simple like that.

I should have a better message there instead of just disabling the button. I’ll work on that.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Brendan]

So I’ve modified Tap Forms so that if you have iCloud disabled, Tap Forms won’t even display the Enable iCloud Sync button. Instead it will display a message explaining that iCloud is turned off and an Open Settings button you can tap on to take you right to the Settings app. Unfortunately Apple doesn’t include the iCloud setting there on the Tap Forms settings screen in the Settings app so you have to navigate back to your account, then iCloud, then enable iCloud for Tap Forms.

But at least it will prevent any further confusion in this area for other people that may have iCloud turned off.

Thanks!

Brendan

[HappyTapper]

Great idea!

[Author]

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