Using Dropbox to sync iPad and iPhone

[Shelly Yomano]

I have just set up a new iPad Air2. I have used Tap Forms for years on my iPhone 5. So I installed the same iPhone version on my new iPad. It seems to work fine, except:
I have tried to use syncing via Dropbox, and it doesn’t seem to work. The sync screen on the iPhone only lists the iPhone as a registered device, and the sync screen on the iPad only lists the iPad. None of the forms on my iPhone sync to the new iPad. I have enabled syncing on both, and they have the same encryption key. I have tried resetting sync on both devices numerous times, and I have uninstalled and reinstalled Tap Forms on the iPad a few times.
Any idea what is causing this problem? It’s not due to using the iPhone version on an iPad is it?

[Brendan]

Hi Shelly,

I don’t think there should be an issue with using the iPhone version on an iPad. As long as when you enabled Dropbox sync, the Dropbox app launched and you allowed Tap Forms to access the Tap Forms Sync folder in your Dropbox account and then it properly re-launched the Tap Forms app after that, it should be ok.

Did that happen?

There can be an issue if you have two versions of Tap Forms on the same device though.

[Brendan]

Shelly, can you also look into your Dropbox Apps folder and look for Tap Forms Sync and see if there’s a SyncDocuments folder in there? You should see one that has 2 files in it (at least). The two files should be named something like “TFSyncDevice”. You may also have one or more TFSyncDoc files if you’ve pressed the upload to cloud button at any time.

The TFSyncDevice files are the registration files that get created when you enable sync on each device. There should be one file for each device that’s been enabled.

[Brent McInnis]

Brendan,

I was writing in another string earlier, regarding not having my iCloud syncing working. You helped me get that straightened out, so I decided to try my hand at Dropbox syncing.

It took about 20-25 minutes for my 4 devices (1 Mac, 3 iOS devices) to all see each other. I was actually composing this posting, saying that none of them saw each other, when, after about 20 minutes, I noticed that some of them had started to see each other.

(In the midst of that, incidentally, I logged into Dropbox, and noticed that they wanted me to click a link which would allow then to send an email to confirm my email address, which I did. I’m not sure if that had been holding up the Tap Forms syncing setup or not).

At the time I started the posting, after having had Dropbox syncing enabled on all 4 devices for 5-10 minutes, there was a SyncDocuments folder, but it was empty. By the time I’d finished typing what I wanted to post (about 10 minutes later), there were two TFSyncDevice files in it. A few minutes later, there were four.

I have now synced all 4 devices on Dropbox (resulting in seven TFSyncDevice files). To me, the performance seems just about the same as with iCloud – it takes a minute or two for the synced up data to start propagating to the other devices.

I just thought I’d post this so others could have it as a data point.

Thanks as usual for your assistance, Brendan.

[Brendan]

Hi Brent,

I find that once everything has initially synced that when you sync smaller changes, it feels like it’s quicker to sync. But the initial sync isn’t really quicker because it still has to upload and download a bunch of files, depending on how many you have in Tap Forms. When I say it feels faster, generally when I press the upload button on one device, the other device is already downloading the data by the time I look at it. Now of course that depends on the size of the file being sent, but it’s really the notifications that there’s new data for Tap Forms to process comes more quickly than iCloud (IMHO).

Thanks!

Brendan

[Shelly Yomano]

Brendan and Brent,

Thx for all your attention and help.

Perhaps this is just a timing issue. When I first opened DropBox today, there were two TFSyncDevice files, but no TFSyncDoc files. But when I reset and then resynced on my iPhone, a TFSyncDoc file appeared in DropBox. It has been working on “Processing Changes from Cloud…” for over 30 minutes. But I’ll be patient. After it’s done I’ll try to get the iPad into the loop.

Will post another update as things develop.

Shelly

[Shelly Yomano]

Maybe I was prematurely optimistic. Dropbox now has 2 TFSyncDoc and 2 TFSyncDevice files, one for each device. The Sync Settings screen in Tap Forms on iPad and on iPhone both show the 2 registered devices. So far so good.
But the databases on my iPhone never show up on my iPad (since the iPad was just set up, it has no personal databases that I have created). I can hit the sync-up icon on each & it quickly displays the checkmark that sync went through ok. But no transfer of databases to iPad.

If I totally exit from and restart Tap Forms from either device, I immediately get a message “Synchronization has failed”. It has 5 things to try, which I have done over and over in the last few days. I’ll try once more time, but I hold no hope that it will work.

[Shelly Yomano]

All fixed!
I am almost too embarrassed to explain the problem, but I will swallow my pride. In my troubleshooting and going back-and-forth with reconfigurations, I had set the 2 encryption passwords to two different passwords!
I started everything over from scratch, waiting 5 minutes between each step. Didn’t look like it made a difference. But after a while longer, everything magically appeared on the iPad like it is supposed to.
Thanks again for your help. And please don’t ban me from the forum… my face is red enough already.

Shelly

[Brendan]

Hahah… no worries Shelley. There’s no banning going on here :-)

I’m glad you got it worked out.

Thanks!

Brendan

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