iOS Auto Syncing

[stigall77]

Apologies in advance if there is another post on this topic. (I searched, but didn't find anything discussing this exactly. The closest I can find is this.)

 

Is there a reason why the iOS app does not sync with Dropbox automatically? I find it quite cumbersome to manually sync after each note I make in the iOS app.

 

Auto syncing seems to be a vital feature given the fact that many (I assume it's many) use the iOS app as a workspace and that auto syncing is becoming an "assumed" feature of many other apps.

 

Thanks.

[Scott Knapp]

Dropbox did not provide an iCloud like file syncing SDK at the time we implemented this feature in the iOS app. Now that they have, it is on the list of features to add in a future release.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Scott Knapp

[stigall77]

Great! Thanks Scott. Any idea on the timeline that you can share?

[Scott Knapp]

Not anytime soon. Sorry. But it is planned.

[stigall77]

I just want to update this topic with results of a sync test I did today. I wanted to see if notes would be overwritten depending on when the device synced with Dropbox, or if notes would be merged. (If it matters, I have "Automatically Resolve User Note conflicts" checked in my Macbook preferences.) If I'm doing something incorrectly, I'd like to know. The results aren't encouraging to me:

 

1. I made a note on my Macbook.
2. I synced my Macbook with Dropbox.
3. I made a note on my iPad, purposely not syncing with Dropbox first.
4. I made a note on my iPad (on the same verse)
5. I synced my iPad with Dropbox.
6. The note made on the Macbook did not appear on my iPad.
7. I synced my Macbook with Dropbox.
8. The note made on my iPad appeared, but the note made on my Macbook disappeared.

So, the note I made on my Macbook was replaced by the note I made on my iPad.

 

Does this mean that I constantly have to manually sync devices when opening Accordance and before quitting my session with Accordance to make sure I don't accidentally replace notes that I've made that have not been synced on all devices? If so, that seems like a very "unintuitive" approach to notes. Will the changes to notes in Accordance 11 and the subsequent update of how notes are handled on the iOS apps fix this? (There's no timeline, as far as I understand for the iOS notes to be updated to sync with the new Notes features in Acc 11.)

[Abram K-J]

Someone from Accordance will probably speak to your questions about syncing in general, but to your last sentence--Accordance has said that the next iOS update (coming any time) is going to make it possible to sync User Notes between iOS and Accordance 11.

[Scott Knapp]

Dropbox syncing of user note files in the mobile app uses the same algorithm as the "Automatically resolve user note conflicts" option in the desktop app. What that means is that during syncing the last edit of a user note on a verse wins. Which is exactly what happened according to your description. So I'm not sure I understand what you believe the issue is with this approach. If you make a change locally on a device (PC, Mac, or iOS) and you want that change propagated to your other devices you need to make sure that you have propagated that change not only up to your remote Dropbox, but have also pulled down theses changes to your local devices. The desktop apps support automatic Dropbox syncing but for now the iOS app still requires a manual sync.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hey Scott,

 

I thought that the last note on a verse might win. Has any consideration been given to merging both notes together when a conflict on a verse is found ? In manual conflict resolution this would be a bit easier but auto resolution could also do it though cleanup by the user might be required. I realize it could of course get complicated but I just wondered.

 

Thx

D

[Scott Knapp]

The highlight file conflict resolution has a bit of "merging" logic in it which works for some definition of "works" during syncing. But for user notes we just felt that keeping it a simple as possible made the most sense under the assumption that notes would be synced regularly and automatically. Of course, we haven't gotten to the automatic part in the mobile app as fast as we originally planned.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Thanx for the explanation.

D

[stigall77]

My primary concern is that the entire process takes so many steps to ensure that I don't accidentally overwrite notes. I still seems to me that if I make a note on my iMac and then move to my iPad, I need to make sure that the note on the iMac has synced before I make a note on the same verse on my iPad. After I make the note on my iPad (assuming I haven't overwritten a note by doing so), I need to then be sure to sync that note manually before going back to my iMac (or iPhone or Macbook) and making another note that could be overwritten. There is a lot of room for notes to be overwritten, if I understand the process correctly. All of this is compounded by the fact that it takes a number of steps to sync notes on iOS devices. I have many other apps that sync much more cleanly between devices, so my best guess is that syncing can be implemented much better in Accordance. (That's an educated, but not a knowledgeable guess. I know nothing about programming.) Of course, maybe this is an issue that not many people care about, which is fine, of course.