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Trouble with iCloud Sync

Hi All,

Some customers have had troubles getting Tap Forms to sync with iCloud. Some have not.

iCloud sync is a very complicated beast, so sometimes it's quite difficult to diagnose the problems some of you may be having.

A customer who had been having troubles with Tap Forms' iCloud sync forwarded me this web address which helped him to resolve the issue:

http://support.iawriter.com/help/kb/general-questions/icloud-wont-work-whats-wrong

 

Please let me know if any of these troubleshooting tips help you out.

Thanks,

Brendan

25 Responses to “Trouble with iCloud Sync”

  1. Chuck says:

    This happens often, but the bypass of turning off iCloud sync and then back on again seems to work.

  2. boxerman says:

    A suggestion for iCloud support in Tap: please add an attribute to the database forms which allows the user to choose to Synch or NOT Synch a database. I have ported several Bento dbs to Tap, some of which I want on my iPhone and some I do not.

    Thanks

  3. Brendan says:

    It was Apple’s preference that everything or nothing gets synced to iCloud, so that’s why it’s done that way. However, I suppose it would be possible for me to skip sending updates up to iCloud for specific forms that you don’t want to sync. I’ll think about it.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

  4. Brendan says:

    Although now that I think about it a few seconds more, it could be troublesome to sync only specific photos, drawings, audio recordings, and file attachments that are related to a specific form. In fact, ya, that would be really tough. So not sure about that feature.

  5. boxerman says:

    Expanding my thoughts… I wouldn’t want this feature available on any IOS device, only the desktop install of Tap. The desktop app would be the only instance of Tap that could maintain both local and iCloud synched db stores. What I think you would have to do is actually maintain two stores for the user’s databases, one that contained the dbs in the users local sandbox and another that could reside in either the local sandbox or iCloud. When a user set the attribute for a db form to be synched in iCloud, it would simply be moved from the local store to the ubiquitous iCloud store. The UI would show all db forms in one window just as you have it now. What time will you have this ready? Just kidding – yes, iCloud coding is a challenge.

  6. Brendan says:

    Haha… nice one boxerman.

    Tap Forms stores its forms all in one database file in the local sandbox. There’s no store in iCloud. Not really anyway. What does get sent to iCloud are the changes that you’ve made. If it’s the first time you’ve synced, the entire database file is uploaded to iCloud sans indexes of any kind (e.g. no search text index). So just the raw data. Then subsequent syncs send up only the changes you’ve done since the last time you tapped on the Sync button (or the new Pull-to-Sync function on the Forms screen). So it’s entirely possible that if I flagged forms in the database to not sync then I could simply exclude those forms and their records from being uploaded to iCloud. The device on the other side would never know they existed.

    I’ll have that ready for you in 10 minutes… ;)

    Why wouldn’t you want that feature on iOS also? For the most part I try to make sure that all versions have the same capabilities.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

  7. boxerman says:

    brendan –

    quick question – I want to turn on encryption on the Mac install so that it requires a pass code just like it does on the iPhone. I never entered a pass code, but TF thinks I did. I removed the app and re-installed it from MAS. Still wants a code. I got rid of the tf folder in ~lib/containers but it still wants a code??? How can I simply reset it on the Mac so that I can enter a code “that I actually know”? Thanks.

  8. Brendan says:

    Try looking for a Tap Forms entry in your Keychain Utilities app and delete it from there. Unless you have an encrypted form that you’re trying to view. In that case you’ll need to go to the Tap Forms Preferences screen and enter in the same encryption key you use on your iPhone.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

  9. boxerman says:

    that was the ticket, thanks brendan!

  10. John Connell says:

    Brendan,
    I have just purchased and installed TF to be able to share the grocery list with my wife. We each have separate iCloud accounts on our iMacs and iPhones, so we each have our own Bookmarks, photos, calendar, etc. that sync between our own devices. Since TF doesn’t prompt for an iCloud acct, we cannot share the grocery list form. Any ideas??

  11. Brendan says:

    Hi John,

    Unfortunately there’s no quick solution to this problem other than to email a list of records to your wife which she then imports into her copy of Tap Forms.

    However, if it’s just grocery lists that you want to share then there’s a great app called GroceryIQ which specializes in this:

    https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/grocery-iq/id290591617?mt=8

    Thanks!

    Brendan

  12. Hi Brendan,

    I can’t sync my iphone to Mac. I have tried to align my encryption keys. The tapform on mac requires existing one before i can change it. I don’t recall setting one. I went into keychain. Nothing there from tapform.
    Any suggestions?

    ta
    Andrew

    • Brendan says:

      Hello Andrew,

      Search for Tap Forms (with a space between the words). You should see it listed. Then launch Tap Forms after you’ve deleted the existing key. You will then see a “Set Encryption Key” button on the Security settings screen. Now you can make them the same.

      Also, don’t click upload to iCloud if there’s only one device listed in the list of Registered Devices. It will fail. I’ve fixed this for the next update. Wait until there’s 2 or more devices listed. This makes a tiny bit of sense actually because there’s no point in syncing if you have only one device.

      Thanks!

      Brendan

  13. AH…thanks…search term was the key

    many thanks!!

    Andrew

  14. Barb Murray says:

    Can’t sync at all since iPhone iOS update. What’s the simplest way to get working again. I’ve tried a few tests & nothing seems to be working. Does TN need an update?

    • Brendan says:

      Hi Barb,

      Tap Forms should sync, but if you’re trying to sync with your Mac, then you won’t be able to after the upgrade to iOS 8. That’s because iOS 8 now uses iCloud Drive for syncing files where previously it used Documents & Data. What happens when you upgrade is Apple does a one-time migration of your data from Documents & Data to iCloud Drive and freezes syncing of anything older than iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite. So you’ll have to wait for Yosemite to be released in order for sync to work again. But you should be able to sync between any of your iOS 8 devices now. You just may need to wait for the data migration process to complete. You could also try signing out of iCloud on your iOS devices and signing back in. Wait a while for the sync process to finish up (it could take quite a while depending on how much data you store in iCloud) and then try syncing in Tap Forms again.

      I am working on an update which will improve iCloud syncing a bit and will also fix a Note field crash issue. I expect to send that to Apple for review next week.

      Thanks!

      Brendan

  15. Barb Murray says:

    also, does anything from TN show up any where in iCloud? I can’t find anything, to see if changes are being made from either iMac or iPhone but not picked up by the other (e.g. problem only on one side). Thanks.

  16. Hey Brendan!

    I’m having issues syncing between my iPhone 6Plus and my macbook. It will on.y show 1 device on the device list under iCloud sync. Any thoughts? Thank you!

    • Brendan says:

      Hi David,

      Have you tried logging off iCloud and logging on again? I find that helps immensely.

      Give iCloud some time to catch up syncing and then give it another try. You may want to Reset iCloud Sync in Tap Forms after you’ve logged back in to iCloud. Use the “Sign Off” buttons on the iCloud settings screens on Mac and iOS.

      Thanks,

      Brendan

  17. lys says:

    H Brendan,

    when I updated to ios8 I discovered the problems with syncing between my mac, iPad and iPhone. I decided to follow advice and wait patiently for Yosemite. But today before I upgraded I checked out system requirements. Seems I have too old a blue tooth, not 4, so handoff won’t work. Does this mean Tap Forms won’t sync either?
    (i’m no spring chicken and I’m thinking I may have to go back to pen and paper)
    Until I upgraded to ios8 I was very happy with Tap Forms : )

    cheers
    Lys

    • Brendan says:

      Hello Lys,

      Tap Forms does not use Handoff, so the version of Bluetooth you have makes no difference.

      Handoff is something I’d like to add to a future update. In fact, I had planned on adding support for it, but I cannot get Handoff to work between my Mac and my iOS 8 devices properly either. Not even for Apple’s apps. I do have new enough hardware as I have a retina 15″ MacBook Pro from mid-2012 and my iOS 8 devices are iPhone 6 and 6+. So they should work. I almost have them working as I can see a website from my Mac to my iPhones, but not the other way around. When I visit a website on my iPhone, my Mac will not display the Handoff icon in the dock. So until I can get Apple’s own software working, I won’t be able to get Handoff working in Tap Forms.

      As for syncing in Tap Forms, it uses iCloud Drive to sync and not Handoff.

      Please see this topic reply from me if you’re having troubles getting devices to recognize each other:

      https://www.tapforms.com/forums/topic/how-to-get-icloud-sync-going-again/#post-11142

      Thanks,

      Brendan

  18. Tom Becker says:

    Bought Tap Forms today and migrated my wife’s Jewelry list from Bento along with photos ok. Bento will output the template with all the data and photos, and Tap Forms will import it all ok, with photos. So I downloaded Tap Forms onto my wife’s computer, a Mac Air with Yosemite 10.10.1. We have been syncing Contacts and Messages okay through ICloud for several months without any trouble. But, there’s no way in hell I can get Tap Forms to sync. I have it on the ICloud Preferences list in both computers but nothing happens. I reboot, restart, resync, reload, etc. Nothing happens. I finally got the list to her computer by carrying the backup over on a flash drive, but that’s not a solution since we cannot work separately on the list. I have Mavericks 10.9.5 on my computer and will not install Yosemite since Tim Cook doesn’t believe in the first law of software design: backward compatibility. I’ve got too much to loose on my computer. Been at this for many hours now, so don’t tell me to wait until it happens.

    • Brendan says:

      Hi Tom,

      Well, the problem is that iCloud Drive, which Tap Forms uses on Yosemite is not compatible with Documents & Data which is the only thing available on Mavericks. Contacts and Messages don’t use Documents & Data or iCloud Drive, so that’s why they will still sync, but Tap Forms won’t. When you use Yosemite with iCloud Drive, Apple will migrate your data from Documents & Data over to iCloud Drive and will freeze syncing of files to Mavericks and iOS 7 or earlier. So the only solution is to upgrade to Yosemite I’m afraid. This isn’t really a Tap Forms issue, but an Apple issue because they didn’t write iCloud Drive support into Mavericks. It would have been nice if they did.

      Thanks,

      Brendan

  19. Ingrid says:

    I bought both the PC and the iphone version, entered a batch of info into a “Book Collection” file, then I got a new mac, and now I have lost all my data and cannot even get anything going on the iphone, I loved the database program itself, but the sync sucks! I don’t use icloud, there does not seem to be support for dropbox, and the IBM system also is questionable, as it does not include ANY support, unless one wants to pay IBM. Very suspicious set up.
    I sent numerous emails back and forth and the result is disappointing. I am not a computer klutz, but this system is a holy mess, and I am not a happy customer,

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