Out of Sync

[xpusostomos]

I’ve been using Tap Forms with iCloud, and I noticed that the number of records on each device is different. 110, 110, 109 and 107 on Mac, iPad, Mac and iPhone respectively.

So I tried resetting iCloud, first on one device to see what happened, and then when that didn’t fix it, I tried each successive device. Nothing changed.

I tried adding a record, and it did sync properly across all devices, albeit some older records stubbornly refuse to sync. I found one of the ones in discrepancy. I tried to modify one to see if that would unstick it, but alas, no.

One odd thing, on one Mac, when I click on the cloud, it doesn’t show any other devices. On the 2nd Mac, I click the cloud it shows all 4 devices. On the iPhone it doesn’t show any other devices. On the iPad it shows all 4 devices. The 2 devices that seem to be acting reasonably and showing all 4 devices are showing the full and corresponding number of records.

Not sure what to do now. I suppose I could back it up, obliterate it, and then try and import it all again. But that’s a huge pain, and I can’t do that every time it goes wrong, I’d go mad.

[EddieCG]

Glad to see someone else with a sync problem! I had TapForms on my iPad 3, then bought myself an iPad Mini, and installed TapForms on that. I cannot remember now how I got my existing data over from one to the other. But, they are certainly not syncing. If I go into iCloud sync on my mini, it shows just the mini as a registered device. Yet if I go into iCloud sync on my iPad 3 it also shows the Mini as the only registered device. So the iPad 3 knows the Mini exists. But if I force a sync from the Mini, nothing changes on the iPad 3. And conversely, if I force a sync from the iPad 3, nothing changes on the Mini. Both iPads are registered with the same Apple ID, I only have one account with Apple.

Sorry if I have hi-jacked your post, don’t know if Brendan can see if the problems are related. I have read a couple of posts on this problem, but am not sure what I need to look for where, and with what app!

[xpusostomos]

I let the problem alone for a while, and now all the devices are synched and look normal.

I think I knew this already, but I keep forgetting it all the time. Just because Tapforms says its synched, doesn’t mean that Apple’s iCloud machinery has done its work. Probably Tapforms should keep reminding us of this with a message saying synching has commenced, but not complete.

[Brendan]

The issue is that Tap Forms is simply writing files to a folder on each of your devices. After I write these files, it’s up to iCloud to send them around to your other devices. Tap Forms only writes these files when you tap the upload to iCloud button. So you’re not really “forcing a sync”, you’re just telling Tap Forms to upload any changes it has made to iCloud. If you have no changes since the last time you clicked that button, nothing will happen. You’ll still see the message appear briefly, but that’s just Tap Forms checking to see if there’s anything to do. If not, then nothing gets written to your iCloud folder.

So if you don’t see the same set of devices listed in the Registered Devices list on ALL of your devices, then that’s a very good indicator that iCloud isn’t syncing on your devices. It’s not an indicator that there’s something wrong with Tap Forms. It’s an indicator that the Documents & Data iCloud sync service isn’t doing its job on your devices.

In many cases a simple reboot will correct that. But sometimes it’s just a matter of waiting it out. Also, the device registration files Tap Forms generates (called TFSyncDevice) won’t get downloaded until you actually view the list of registered devices. It can take some time for that to happen if iCloud is being slow. So just looking at that list would trigger a download, then looking at it again sometime later should show the files once they’ve downloaded. They’re very small files so they should sync quickly, but alas it’s up to iCloud to determine that.

I hope that clears things up a bit.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Brendan]

If you haven’t already done so, please take a look at my iCloud sync documentation and the demo video at the bottom of the page:

http://www.manula.com/manuals/tap-zapp/tap-forms-mac/2.0/en/topic/icloud-sync

Thanks!

Brendan

[Author]

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