Sync nearby and issue with iPhone.

[Victor Warner]

One database I have is large (a collection of forms, including one which contains 40K records, and another 80k) and I am finding that syncing via iCloud is too cumbersome and slow.

I have instead set up syncing Nearby – and following the instructions on https://www.tapforms.com/help-mac/5.3/en/topic/nearby-sync it appears to work fine for Mac-to-Mac and Mac-to-Ipad, but only with the iPhone I am having a problem.

From the iPhone, when I tap the + on the top right hand side of the Nearby Sync I see all the other devices which have the database open. For example, I have been able to add the iMac I use.

But from either Mac I use or the iPad, the iPhone is not shown.

iPhone name: iPhone Xs Max (ie less than 16 characters), iOS 12.3.1.

Both Macs running macOS 10.14.5

I have exited Tap Forms and rebooted both the Macs and the iPhone. None of which makes a difference.

I would be grateful for some help.

[Brendan]

Hi Victor,

Is your iPhone XS Max on the same WiFi network as your Mac? And the iPhone will only show up when you click on the [+] button at the bottom of the Nearby Sync devices list.

[Victor Warner]

Brendan,

The answers: yes the iphone is on the same wireless network and I did press [+] on the Mac.

The screenshots show that from the iPhone I can see and connect to the Mac but on the Mac the iphone is not seen.

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[Brendan]

Does your iPhone have Bluetooth enabled? It might be needed for the discovery part.

There’s a free app on the Mac App Store that lets you see a list of network published services:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/discovery-dns-sd-browser/id1381004916?mt=12

Run that and see if you see any entries for Tap Forms there. You should see an entry for each instance of a Tap Forms document you open on each device. It will also tell you which device has which document opened.

It will help you to diagnose the issue. Let me know if the iPhone shows up on the network when you open the document.

[Victor Warner]

Brendan,

Thank you for the further information.

Bluetooth is on.

The Discovery application does show (I think) the specific database which is open on both the Mac and the iPhone.

Attached is a pdf with screen shots.

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[Brendan]

But what about the output from the Mac Discovery app when you have the same document opened on each device?

Here’s an example of 2 documents opened on the Mac and one opened on my iPhone X which matches one of the opened documents on the Mac.

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[Victor Warner]

Brendan,

Thanks for the screenshot, but having installed Discovery on the Mac, the iPhone is not showing. Attached is the PDF loaded before but with a couple more screen shots from Discovery on the Mac.

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[Brendan]

And you’re positive you had the same document opened up on your iPhone at the moment you viewed the results from the Discovery app on Mac?

You do have 2 different documents opened on your Macs though. Not the same one on each Mac.

[Victor Warner]

Yes I am.

I closed all instances of Tap Forms on the other Mac and iPad I use, so that only the same database is open on both the iPhone and iMac. Attached are new screen shots.

However, I observed the following (despite the iPhone not showing from the iMac):

1. a change made on the iMac to the database is synced to the iPhone; and
2. a change made on the iPhone to the database is not.

I would be grateful for further suggestions on what to do.

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[Brendan]

Are you running a VPN or anything on your Mac and/or iPhone?

Maybe try re-installing Tap Forms on your iPhone and see if that makes a difference.

Essentially whenever you open a document on the Mac or iOS version of Tap Forms, it registers itself on the network. That’s when you would see the entry on the Discovery app appear. You can see that happening in realtime by closing and opening the documents while monitoring the Discovery app.

If it’s not showing up on the Mac when you open the document on the iPhone, it means there’s something on the iPhone that’s blocking that registration on the network. And I don’t really know what that could be other than maybe the device is managed somehow. Some corporate devices are managed in such a way that some services may not be available to them. Maybe your iPhone is like this? I’m not sure. And you do have your iPad registered, so that works fine and it’s the same version of Tap Forms. So I don’t think it’s a bug in Tap Forms that prevents registration on the network just from iPhones. That code is identical no matter what platform it’s run on.

[Sam Moffatt]

The nearby sync is one way, it pulls changes from the other side to your local device. In this situation your Mac can’t see your phone but your phone can see your Mac, so changes on the Mac are pulled from the iPhone but the changes on the iPhone aren’t pulled because your phone can’t see the Mac. Once you add the phone to the Mac, the Mac will pull the changes from the phone.

This might be an odd question but does hand off work from this device to your other devices? Looking at your screenshot, your device also doesn’t show up in companion link. Can you expand out the _apple-mobdev2 entries to see if the phone is listed there?

One other solution would be to set up a CouchDB server on one of your Macs and then use that for sync.

[Victor Warner]

Are you running a VPN or anything on your Mac and/or iPhone?

Yes. Encrypt.me. But this run on the iPad and iPhone and only gets used in other places, ie not connected when to my wifi.

Maybe try re-installing Tap Forms on your iPhone and see if that makes a difference.

No difference.

And I don’t really know what that could be other than maybe the device is managed somehow. Some corporate devices are managed in such a way that some services may not be available to them. Maybe your iPhone is like this?

Not managed as a corporate device.

I’m not sure. And you do have your iPad registered, so that works fine and it’s the same version of Tap Forms.

I have an old iPhone. I loaded Tap Forms, but the same problem occurs on the old iPhone too.

I try to keep the way both iPhone and iPad are configured the same (same configuration, same apps etc). I may reinstall iOS on the old Iphone and treat it as a fresh install rather than a reinstall and see if the issue is resolved.

[Sam Moffatt]

I’d make sure the VPN is not still interfering with your connections, even on the local network when it’s supposed to be disabled. Does your old iPhone have any of this still on it? Are there any custom profiles installed on it? (Settings -> General -> Profiles)

I’d try removing the VPN and making sure it’s not messing with sending traffic out as a part of it’s security measures (at which point, it’s actually working because your Mac can’t see your phone, it’s working at intended).

[Victor Warner]

I am fairly there is no VPN interfering with the connections.

I reinstalled the iOS on the old iPhone – and set it up as a new iPhone (taking no settings at all from the previous installation). I then only installed Tap Forms. Tap Forms on the iMac can now see this iPhone.

[Brendan]

Interesting. So I wonder what was causing it to not be seen? You might want to check it bit by bit after you re-install things. I still suspect the VPN.

[Brendan]

Or something that’s disabling Bonjour networking.

Did AirDrop work from the Mac to the iPhone before?

[Victor Warner]

I deleted the VPN profile in place and also deleted the encrypt.me app as well. Rebooted the iphone. None of this made a difference.

AirDrop worked before I made any of the changes (both ways, Mac to iPhone, iPhone to Mac).

[Sam Moffatt]

Are there any other profiles installed?

Seems odd that a complete new device doesn’t have any issues on your network. Apart from the VPN software, is there anything else that might have done MDM like AirWatch, InTune or similar corporate management tools that you might have installed in the past? Some screen management and other sorts of safety tools also installed profiles that might be interfering as well.

Since AirDrop works via a separate WiFi network or over Bluetooth connections (you can AirDrop people without an existing shared network connection), I don’t think it’d be impacted. On MacOS the AirDrop stuff has it’s own network interface setup for example.

On the Mac there is an option that can disable Bonjour/mDNSResponder, I wonder if something has tripped this on your phone. One other thing that I can think of is to try deleting your wifi connections on that device and re-add them to see if there is anything latent there.

Can you try deleting and re-joining your wifi network with the VPN software and profiles removed?

[Victor Warner]

Brendan and Sam,

Thank you for all of the help.

However, trying to resolve the problem was too time consuming. Also the latest iPhone was set up using the data and settings from the previous iPhone which in turn was setup using the data and settings from an even older iPhone. Although updated with new iOS’s and apps etc, it must be at least 5 years since I set up an iPhone from new.

I decided to start afresh as with a completely new iPhone (ie retaining none of the settings). Although time-consuming in loading apps and entering in many passwords (much easier now with how 1Password is integrated into iOS) and requiring a lot of configuring etc, the problem with nearby sync is no longer present.

Thank you again for helping.

[Sam Moffatt]

Good to hear you got it all resolved :) Happy Sync’ing!

[Brendan]

Excellent! Sometimes carrying cruft from old OS installations can lead to problems. Easier to manage a fresh install than on a Mac. I think I’m probably going on a decade or more of settings coming forward from previous OS installations.

[Eddzo]

I have a question now that nearby sync issues where figured out.

What is the most reliable/dependable form of syncing for tapforms?

iCloud is 89% glitchy for me,
For example, I’ll add something to my phone book and it disappears, therefore I can’t point at tapforms because it happens the native contacts app.

I’ve had the same issue with iCloud Sync and tap forms
Missing images for the most part.

I tried CouchDB but it was being discontinued or something like that.

Tried setting up Amazon Web Services, never got it working and wanted to pull my hair out ?

I’m an electrician by trade and I have so many uses for tapforms but I need it to sync without issues for me to really depend on it.

I’d like to be able have at most 3 iPads and 3 iPhones collecting data and me able to retrieve it on the iMac,pad, phone…

[Brendan]

IBM Cloudant wasn’t discontinued. It was just renamed and moved into a different umbrella service called IBM Cloud. Tap Forms still works with it. They do seem to change their setup process from time to time, so my instructions may be a bit out of date, but for the most part you should be able to get it setup.

You can also setup Apache CouchDB on your own Mac. It’s quite easy to do and that’s my preferred sync method anyway. It’s relatively easy to setup and once it’s setup it’s fast to sync and is secure because it doesn’t go over the cloud. And whenever your devices are at home and they can see your Mac running CouchDB, they’ll sync.

Ya, AWS can be tricky. I’ve managed to get it to work via the http://www.bitnami.com service where they install it for you.

[Eddzo]

I’m currently a company of 1 person and I’m typically out in the field working.

Would this set up work?
Apache DB installed on the MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro,pad,phone in the work truck

Allowing me to Open up tapforms, modify a form to collect data on the spot, have it sync the pad and phone within the truck.

Would that mean, I’d have to have some sort of network within the truck, ? my mobile hotspot from Verizon.

Then when I got home, and walked into my home network, the iMac ? desktop would update what everybody else was carrying?

Would something like that work?
Using the iphones ? mobile hotspot function to get the laptop, iPad, iPhone one that field network.

[Sam Moffatt]

You just need a P2P network between the MBP, the iPad and the iPhone out in the field which you could possibly set up ad hoc from the MBP however the iPhone would lose internet connectivity when you joined that network. You might be able to set up the phone to be the hotspot to create a network and that might depend upon your carrier though I’m not sure how many devices it’ll let you connect.

In P2P mode all three devices would need to have each other added so their changes replicate to each other. If your MBP is always going to be on, you can also set it up so that the iPhone and iPad just add the TF instance on the MBP and then the MBP adds the other two devices (sort of like a star network). You could also install CouchDB on the MBP however since it won’t have a fixed identity, I’m not sure I’d recommend that.

Then for your home network, I’d again keep it simple and have the MBP and the iMac configured via P2P to talk to each other and then you make sure TF is open on both devices and everything syncs. If you’re missing something from the iPad or iPhone then you’d have to make sure they’re open. You could run CouchDB on your iMac or you can keep TF open on it as well. You could also configure the iMac to try to pull via P2P from the mobile devices as well.

I used to have a similar set up with multiple iPhones and iPads all hooked up to each other via P2P and I ended up moving to hub and spoke first (I had an iMac at home running TF as a hub which had all of the devices added to it and then they all only added the iMac) to now using CouchDB on the iMac with everyone pushing to that. If you’re willing to pay for it, setting up an external CouchDB that all devices use would be the ideal way but for your use case, I think having P2P set up might be enough.

One word of warning though, Tap Forms uses a “last write wins” sync system. This means that if you change the same record on two devices (e.g. a conflict), then when it comes to resolving those conflicts the latest change is used. If everything is connected all of the time (external CouchDB or everything is up to date via P2P) then this is less likely to be a problem but it is a behaviour you should be careful with. That said you can easily add the “Date Modified” field to your form which will automatically update each time the record changes so you can quickly see when the last time the instance of TF that you’re using thinks the record changed. If this is a date earlier than your latest changes, then you’ll know that something is out of date and to get the sync working again. If you can afford it, a cloud hosted solution that all devices can talk to as you make changes would be the way forward.

My sync setup: 2 iPhones, 3 iPads, 1 MBP, 1 iMac (TF+CouchDB); I also have a cheap Dell machine running Ubuntu Linux with CouchDB on it as well as an extra backup.

Edit: One extra thought, if your iMac at home was always on and you’re comfortable configuring your network, there are guides on the forum on how to expose that CouchDB instance externally with SSL and dynamic DNS. You can then self host the CouchDB but at that point for it to work you’d need some sort of MiFi for the MBP and any other device that doesn’t natively have a cellular connection. I’m also not sure how much data that’d cost on either end to replicate based on your use cases.

[Eddzo]

I cant get the iPhone/iPad to log into CouchDB

It appears that’s its running on my laptop,
When I update the Tapform info on the laptop I see a “document” increase by 1
So I assume that’s Tapform syncing with the CouchDB on the laptop…

When I slide to the iOS devices and enter the same data to login I get errors.
How do I fix this?

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[Sam Moffatt]

On your iOS devices, you need to use the IP address of your computer (e.g. 192.168.1.10 or something like that). Check your Network settings in Preferences to find out what your IP address is. The address 127.0.0.1 is a special address, it’s the address of the local machine. It always works but it always points to the computer or networking device that you’re using. This might change from time to time, so you might need to check back. You can make it a static address but you would need to check what the DHCP range is set on your router.

[Eddzo]

IT WORKED

Basically looked like this:

http://10.0.0.0:5984

I went to
-System preferences
-Network tap
-ip address was written under the button turn wifi off
-Had to add (:5984)

wamo, I almost soiled myself when it worked…. ???

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[Sam Moffatt]

Glad to hear it’s all working :) Keep in mind you might have to change the IP address if your computer turns off for a day or so or your router resets but apart from that, happy sync’ing!

[Eddzo]

Thanks for the help.
Really appreciate your input
You’zz guys are awesome.

[Ray B]

Hello, everybody, I had Nearby Sync issues.
I have found this blob and i thought it would be nice to make a check list.

First my issues:
After a few days of searching and trying thing it finally came back.
The idevice are seeing each other (green light and time out) but they refuse to talk?!
I have the Phone and the iPad side by side, it is showing “Sync Fetching”.
But the sync is not successful and time-out.
Seem like there is something blocking the communication.
The sync start, time out and I get message on one or both device.
The iPad seem to block in the fetching process
It Does not know the sync fail and write the sync date
I deleted the app. on the iPhone, reinstalled it and still won’t sync.

Then the solution:
1- First you have to or more device, you want to sync with nearby sync.
2- Check: https://www.tapforms.com/help-mac/5.3/en/topic/nearby-sync?q=sync
See if you are doing everything as it is suppose to.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Synchronization with nearby devices via Wi-Fi:
Have all your device configure on the same Wifi network.
1 Open the same database document on each device you want to sync with.
2 Under the Tap Forms menu, select Preferences.
3 Click Sync.
4 Click Nearby.
5 If the device isn’t listed, click the + button.
6 You see a green dot appear next to the device you added.
7 You did the same on all of your devices .
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

3- If the nearby sync is still not completing:
Close, re-open the app and rebooted both devices.
Bluetooth is enable, (it maybe use in the connection process).
The DB number is the same (not just the name).
Each device as the other selected, in the sync Parameters.
remove and re-add the sync device.
Enable “Local Network” in Tap forms Privacy settings on both device Settings.
If, it is enable, try to toggle off and on.
Make sur nothing is in play on the network, turn VPN Off.
Toggle the Wifi Off and On, or from a network to an other (main to guest).
Maybe it as to do with the router disliking some of the sync process.

Save all yours document (the DB), then delete the TF app. and re-install it.
(this may help if the sys. pref. are bugs).

This is my two cents, hope it can help!

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