New Sync - Beta testers?

[Ernie]

I have a new “sync” process available for iOS. (The purpose of the sync is to keep multiple devices in sync.) The new sync is fully automatic and doesn’t require the user to pick which updates to download, like the current Dropbox sync. Flashcards are stored on my own server (Microsoft Azure servers) instead of Dropbox.

The new iOS app will be released over the next week. Android will take me another few months before it’s ready.

This sync is in “beta” version now. I don’t know of any problems with it, but I’d like users to try it out and give me feedback before it’s fully released. Using the new sync will turn off the Dropbox sync.

If you are interested in trying out the new sync (you have more than one iOS device), follow the steps below:
Global Options > View > Advanced > Enable Beta Sync. Turn on.
Global Options > Sync. You’ll have the option of using the new “App Server" sync here.

If you try it out, please let me know how it goes. And thanks.
Ernie

[bahsome]

Wow, cool! I'm going to use it from now on!

[DB3]

Well I tried it. I've got a lot of cards so it took a long time to upload them all. Once uploaded, it seemed like it started downloading cards and then it crashed, force closing the app. It does this every time I switch sync on. It starts to sync then crashes, a pop-up message said there were too many errors, the log lists conflicts. When I start the app back up, sync is turned off. I don't think it uploaded all of my cards either, the total on the screen at the bottom during upload didn't match the amount of cards in the larger decks. Having to go back to using dropbox for now.

[Ernie]

DB3,

Thanks for trying it out and for the feedback. I originally asked if you can send a sync log, but you can hold off on this for now. Let me look into this more and I'll get back to you.

Ernie
et@orangeorapple.com

[DB3]

Actually, I think I was wrong about the number of cards. Looking at the log, the deck totals seem to be correct.

The error that’s coming up is ‘(1) Conflict: CSW’. It says this after a few of the the deck names on the log.

[DB3]

I think i've gotten it working now. Just a few points.

The app force-closed if I tried to download a large number of decks at once, I'm not sure why. It was okay when I downloaded the same decks in stages.
The app force-closed if I tried to sync empty decks.
If I changed toggle settings on the deck selection screen, it seemed to lose the changes if I returned to that screen before syncing.

[DB3]

Also, would it be possible to sync folders and deck position as well? They seem to download in the order they were initially uploaded with no further changes applied if a deck's position or folder location is subsequently changed.

By the way, it seems to be working really well now. I can now start using my iPad app as well

[Ernie]

DB3,

Thanks for the info! The crash on an empty deck was a great find. I noticed a couple other problems after looking at some server errors logs and my coding, based on your issues.

You mentioned the app maybe crashes when trying to sync ALL at once. I'm not sure if this was related to "empty deck" or something more. You have a lot data to transfer *initially*, so there may be some outstanding problem related to the app dealing with a large amount of data at the beginning. (On subsequent syncs, the amount of data transferred is relatively small.)

Yeah, I don't move decks/folders as part of the sync process. This was going to be a bit complicated and I had reached my limit of complication working on the sync coding, and felt this was a lower priority and a possible phase 2 update down the road a bit.

[DB3]

Hi

On the whole, the app server sync is working really well. Thank you for providing this option.

Just a few points.

I have found that changing the app / card theme on my iPhone / iPad disrupts the theme on the other device, especially if I add custom backgrounds. Would it be possible to stop the app from syncing themes across devices in order to prevent this?

Also, do you think folder and deck position syncing will come soon? This is the biggest issue I have with the syncing process at the moment.

Lastly, would you consider giving an option to automatically sort decks and folders alphabetically? Would this make synchronisation easier?

Thanks again for continuing to provide a high level of support for this life-changing app (I rely on it immensely for my studies).

[Ernie]

Hi DB3,

1) Themes - I will look into this. I wouldn't think that app themes would be affected, but I'll check it out. As for card themes, I think I'd want the sync to transfer the initial card theme setting for new deck transfers, as I assume this is what most users would want. As for later updates of existing decks, maybe don't transfer this setting during the sync to allow users to keep different card themes on different devices? I think this is what you are looking for. I'm not sure what users would generally want (I assume they'd want the theme to transfer), but not transferring would seem to provide a little more flexibility (at the expense of users having to make the same card theme setting on multiple devices for consistent changes.) I'll see how it goes on my testing.

2) Folder position syncing - this probably won't happen anytime soon. This is tricky on my end (partially due to ability to sync only some of the decks) and I think most people don't have that many decks (nor add/rearrange often) to make this a big deal. But it's something on my radar a bit later after I get other issues taken care of.

3) Auto sort decks alphabetically. Yes, this would simplify a solution in your case, but again, I'm not sure how many people would really need such a feature, and this requires extra programming and an extra option somewhere, so I'm reluctant to add. I'll give it some more thought.

Sorry I don't have a lot of good news for you. I will look into these more. Thanks for providing the feedback.

[DB3]

Hi

I think I may have come across a potential issue.

I sync with the app server but leave my media in dropbox (there is a lot of it, so its far easier this way). However, If I move cards with media between decks (or change the name of the deck), the dropbox Media folders don't update. Therefore, if I then sync decks with a different device, the media won't be found. It seems at the moment that the only way to ensure media is in the correct folder is to do a full backup (which isn't viable because I then exceed my dropbox limit and end up duplicating massive amounts of data), export each individual deck to dropbox every time I move a media card or change a deck's name, or manually move the media files.

Can you tell me if this is correct? Is there a way to ensure that the new app server sync also syncs dropbox Media folders?

Also, my iPad app has now started to force-close every time I try to sync (it downloads empty decks then crashes). I don't know why but I think this might have something to do with it.

Thanks

[Ernie]

DB3,

At this time, I'm not planning on having the app move media files around in Dropbox. So a user using Dropbox to hold sync files will need to keep them up-to-date manually. If you move a card, then you'll need to export that deck to Dropbox manually to get the media file in the right spot. A single deck export should be quick and efficient though, as only missing media files should be exported. This is my plan for the time being.

I'm not happy about the crashes though. If you are still using the sync, are you still getting crashes on iPad? If you want and are willing, update to version 4.14 (which will be available within the next week), and turn the following Apple Setting on: Settings > Privacy > Analytics > Share With Developers. If you do this, let me now when you get a crash, and hopefully I can see some info from that. I can also create a "beta" version for you which we can use to try to troubleshoot, if needed and if you're interested.

I haven't been able to duplicate a crash on my end. Sorry for the trouble. Thanks for trying the sync out

[zeppo]

Have you considered a sync with iCloud?

[Ernie]

Hi zeppo,

No, I'm not interested in iCloud because I need a solution that work with both iOS and Android. Additionally, using my own server that can run code should provide a better sync experience than just a cloud repository (like iCloud or the already existing Dropbox sync).

[trossytriton]

I have a new “sync” process available for iOS. (The purpose of the sync is to keep multiple devices in sync.) The new sync is fully automatic and doesn’t require the user to pick which updates to download, like the current Dropbox sync. Flashcards are stored on my own server (Microsoft Azure servers) instead of Dropbox.

The new iOS app will be released over the next week. Android will take me another few months before it’s ready.

This sync is in “beta” version now. I don’t know of any problems with it, but I’d like users to try it out and give me feedback before it’s fully released. Using the new sync will turn off the Dropbox sync.

If you are interested in trying out the new sync (you have more than one iOS device), follow the steps below:
Global Options > View > Advanced > Enable Beta Sync. Turn on.
Global Options > Sync. You’ll have the option of using the new “App Server" sync here.

If you try it out, please let me know how it goes. And thanks.
Ernie

Great,thank you very much.

[Daniel ...]

Hey!

I just wanted to say that it works perfectly fine on my iPad and iPhone and that it makes syncing much much more convenient.
I can finally get rid of my Dropbox account now... that's just one cloud service too much for me. Thank you for implementing that feature.

However, I also got some Feedback for you:
For some reason the sync bar on the Bottom of the app (both on the iPhone and the iPad) shows an error message after locking the devices and unlocking them again (sometimes). It says "Sync error: An error ocurred. Are you connected to the internet?". But as mentioned before, it works and I haven't noticed any problems so far. I am also connected to the internet. When I pull down the list for updating, it disappears until I lock and unlock again. Seems like the error message itself is incorrect.

So that's nothing that I really care about, but it seems to me that you take your work on this app serious, so thats just for your info.

Keep up the good work!

Greetings
Daniel

[Ernie]

Hi Daniel,

I wasn't aware of this, but I'll try to duplicate the problem on my end so I can fix it.
Thanks for the feedback!

Ernie