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Mark Nigro

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I searched for this topic before posting but did not find it, so I am putting it up here. I have been making notes for some time on my iPad and today finally synced to my desktop. I went made sure to check the Mobile Notes box in the list of times, but alas, instead of transferring them to my desktop from my iPad, all my mobile notes have disappeared from my iPad and do not appear on my desktop. Any thoughts of what went wrong or how to get them back are much appreciated. Thanks.

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I searched for this topic before posting but did not find it, so I am putting it up here. I have been making notes for some time on my iPad and today finally synced to my desktop. I went made sure to check the Mobile Notes box in the list of times, but alas, instead of transferring them to my desktop from my iPad, all my mobile notes have disappeared from my iPad and do not appear on my desktop. Any thoughts of what went wrong or how to get them back are much appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry to hear about this issue. Let me ask you a few questions:

 

Accordance for iOS version?

Accordance for Mac version?

 

Did your user notes file transfer to your Accordance for Mac installation?

 

I'm unsure what you mean by "check the Mobile notes box in the list of times"? Could you clarify this?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Scott.

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Sorry to hear about this issue. Let me ask you a few questions:

 

Accordance for iOS version?

Accordance for Mac version?

 

Did your user notes file transfer to your Accordance for Mac installation?

 

I'm unsure what you mean by "check the Mobile notes box in the list of times"? Could you clarify this?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Scott.

 

Scott,

Thanks for the quick reply. Here's the info you requested:

 

iOS version 1.3.1

Accordance for Mac version 9.4.1

 

I meant that when I synced the iPad with my desktop over wifi network, I got a dialogue box wherein you must select the items you want synced, be it modules or notes. Among the several things I selected to have synced were my mobile notes. Initially I thought that Accordance for Mac overwrote my mobile notes file with its own (which actually had no notes). But now strangely I realize that what should be the content from the "sample notes" is actually showing up in my "mobile notes" on both my iPad and my desktop. The "sample notes" content is blank on both devices, while my mobile notes created on my iPad are gone, and replaced with the content of the "Sample Notes" that comes with the Accordance. I double checked just to be sure, and the entire sample notes file is blank throughout the whole bible.

 

One more thing, is the sync supposed to be bidirectional with the mobile notes, or single, i.e. from iPad to the Mac?

 

Thanks,

Mark

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Scott,

Thanks for the quick reply. Here's the info you requested:

 

iOS version 1.3.1

Accordance for Mac version 9.4.1

 

I meant that when I synced the iPad with my desktop over wifi network, I got a dialogue box wherein you must select the items you want synced, be it modules or notes. Among the several things I selected to have synced were my mobile notes. Initially I thought that Accordance for Mac overwrote my mobile notes file with its own (which actually had no notes). But now strangely I realize that what should be the content from the "sample notes" is actually showing up in my "mobile notes" on both my iPad and my desktop. The "sample notes" content is blank on both devices, while my mobile notes created on my iPad are gone, and replaced with the content of the "Sample Notes" that comes with the Accordance. I double checked just to be sure, and the entire sample notes file is blank throughout the whole bible.

 

One more thing, is the sync supposed to be bidirectional with the mobile notes, or single, i.e. from iPad to the Mac?

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

Mark:

 

First, I would recommend you upgrade your Accordance for Mac installation to 9.4.2 (although I don't believe using 9.4.1 caused your issue).

 

Second, I want to make sure I understand your situation both before you synced and as it stands now.

 

Before syncing:

 

You had two note files in your Accordance for iOS installation: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes (which is the file name I believe for the notes file you've called "Mobile Notes" above). And you've been adding user notes to the "My Mobile Notes" file and NOT the Sample notes file. You also had no user note files in your Accordance for Mac installation.

 

 

 

After Syncing:

 

In your Accordance for Mac installation you have two user note files that show up in the Library: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes.

 

And in your Accordance for iOS installation you also have two user note files installed: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes

 

And if I understand you correctly, the "Sample Notes" file is completely blank on both platforms? So if you open this notes file by itself in both in the iOS app and the Mac app there is no content shown at all.

 

And the "Mobile Notes" file contains all the content that used to be in "Sample Notes" and none of your added content at all on both platforms?

 

 

If this is your situation, I frankly have no idea how this could have happened. I've reviewed the relevant sections of code dealing with the syncing of user notes and I don't see any obvious issue (which doesn't mean there isn't a non-obvious one).

 

User note syncing is designed to be bi-directional and data preserving. You can make changes to a user note file on either platform and then resolve any differences during the syncing process. The syncing algorithm relies not only on the last time a notes file was modified on each platform, but also on the last time an individual user note for a particular verse reference was changed on either platform. And if we run into a situation during syncing where a user has modified an individual note for a particular verse reference on both platforms we give them a chance to choose which version of the user note to keep.

 

It's possible we still have a bug or two present, but I want to make sure I fully understand what happen in your situation first so I can attempt to recreate your setup and see if I can trigger the issue.

 

Scott.

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Mark:

 

First, I would recommend you upgrade your Accordance for Mac installation to 9.4.2 (although I don't believe using 9.4.1 caused your issue).

 

Second, I want to make sure I understand your situation both before you synced and as it stands now.

 

Before syncing:

 

You had two note files in your Accordance for iOS installation: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes (which is the file name I believe for the notes file you've called "Mobile Notes" above). And you've been adding user notes to the "My Mobile Notes" file and NOT the Sample notes file. You also had no user note files in your Accordance for Mac installation.

 

**You are correct about the iOS configuration, but my MBP Accordance Installation had four individual files for various studies.

 

After Syncing:

 

In your Accordance for Mac installation you have two user note files that show up in the Library: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes.

 

**No - here now I have my four, personally created user notes files, plus the default Mobile Notes and Sample Notes appearing in the drop down menu.

And in your Accordance for iOS installation you also have two user note files installed: Sample Notes and My Mobile Notes

 

And if I understand you correctly, the "Sample Notes" file is completely blank on both platforms? So if you open this notes file by itself in both in the iOS app and the Mac app there is no content shown at all.

 

**This is correct. My Sample Notes file is empty when I open it on either platform

 

And the "Mobile Notes" file contains all the content that used to be in "Sample Notes" and none of your added content at all on both platforms?

 

**This also is correct. The notes appearing in my Mobile Notes file are from the Sample Notes file.

If this is your situation, I frankly have no idea how this could have happened. I've reviewed the relevant sections of code dealing with the syncing of user notes and I don't see any obvious issue (which doesn't mean there isn't a non-obvious one).

 

**I am thinking about what could have happened and I have a thought, although I cannot be positive about the exact timing of my last sync. When I synced this time around and lost my notes file, at the beginning of the wifi connection it told me I had never synced before, but that was actually not accurate. I had done one sync prior, a few weeks ago. But here is where in retrospect I think confusion may have arisen. After my first sync weeks ago, I replaced my hard drive but had made an identical clone of it. I believe that this latest sync was the first I have done since the hard drive switch, so that may be why it saw it as a first-time? Still, I would think if the files were all cloned as before it should have a trace of the previous sync. But even if not, my Mobile Notes created on the iPad (in theory) should cross over to my MBP. Other than this, I can't imagine what caused the loss of data, other than a possible bug.

 

User note syncing is designed to be bi-directional and data preserving. You can make changes to a user note file on either platform and then resolve any differences during the syncing process. The syncing algorithm relies not only on the last time a notes file was modified on each platform, but also on the last time an individual user note for a particular verse reference was changed on either platform. And if we run into a situation during syncing where a user has modified an individual note for a particular verse reference on both platforms we give them a chance to choose which version of the user note to keep.

 

It's possible we still have a bug or two present, but I want to make sure I fully understand what happen in your situation first so I can attempt to recreate your setup and see if I can trigger the issue.

 

**I hope the info I have given you helps the Accordance team, if not for my situation, then at least for the general development.

 

Scott.

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**I am thinking about what could have happened and I have a thought, although I cannot be positive about the exact timing of my last sync. When I synced this time around and lost my notes file, at the beginning of the wifi connection it told me I had never synced before, but that was actually not accurate. I had done one sync prior, a few weeks ago. But here is where in retrospect I think confusion may have arisen. After my first sync weeks ago, I replaced my hard drive but had made an identical clone of it. I believe that this latest sync was the first I have done since the hard drive switch, so that may be why it saw it as a first-time? Still, I would think if the files were all cloned as before it should have a trace of the previous sync. But even if not, my Mobile Notes created on the iPad (in theory) should cross over to my MBP. Other than this, I can't imagine what caused the loss of data, other than a possible bug.

 

This is the crux of the issue. The first time you sync an iOS device with a particular Accordance for Mac installation, we note some unique information about the mobile and desktop hardware and store that locally on each device. During the changing out of your hard drive (and possible computer name change?) the information tying the two Accordance installations together was likely changed, lost, or corrupted.

 

That is why when you went to sync "for the first time", Accordance for Mac presented the dialog noting the situation. And in this situation, the only way we know how to choose which version of the user note files to "keep" is based on the actual file creation and modification dates. It's very likely the dates on the files stored on your desktop were newer than the files stored on your iOS device, so the versions on the iOS device were overwritten.

 

I also want to make sure that the dialog Accordance for Mac presented was the "Syncing the first time" version and not the "This device has been synced with another computer" version. Are you sure it was the former and not the latter?

 

In any event, it points to a part of the syncing workflow we need to take a closer look at to make sure we don't overwrite user generated content unnecessarily.

 

Scott.

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This is the crux of the issue. The first time you sync an iOS device with a particular Accordance for Mac installation, we note some unique information about the mobile and desktop hardware and store that locally on each device. During the changing out of your hard drive (and possible computer name change?) the information tying the two Accordance installations together was likely changed, lost, or corrupted.

 

That is why when you went to sync "for the first time", Accordance for Mac presented the dialog noting the situation. And in this situation, the only way we know how to choose which version of the user note files to "keep" is based on the actual file creation and modification dates. It's very likely the dates on the files stored on your desktop were newer than the files stored on your iOS device, so the versions on the iOS device were overwritten.

 

I also want to make sure that the dialog Accordance for Mac presented was the "Syncing the first time" version and not the "This device has been synced with another computer" version. Are you sure it was the former and not the latter?

 

In any event, it points to a part of the syncing workflow we need to take a closer look at to make sure we don't overwrite user generated content unnecessarily.

 

Scott.

Yes, positive it was a "first time sync" window. I recall it specifically because I wondered why it would tell me that seeing how I had already synced before. But still perplexing is why the Sample Notes ended up in the Mobile Notes file? Strange.

 

Anyway, thanks again Scott.

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