Deleted jpgs back!

[tonyt]

I deleted a load of unreferenced jpgs from my mobile documents folder in the TF directory. They are all back again! Help if possible please.

[Brendan]

If iCloud was turned off and then back on again, it’s possible they were re-copied to iCloud from your local Photos folder here:

~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos

[tonyt]

So, to get rid of them should I delete them from BOTH the above and Mobile Documents folder. Should I also delete TapForms data from iCloud and start again?

Which order should I do things in?

Also, does deleting a form not remove the referenced photos from these various places. As I understand it now:

photo1.jpg is referenced in a form. It is stored in…..
~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos
Mobile Documents
TapForms iCloud data

If form is deleted and the photo is not needed, should it not be removed from all storage locations as well? Maybe the thinking is the photo may be needed by another form? If so, when deleting a form would it be possible for a prompt asking if referenced photos / documents / links / etc be TOTALLY removed as well?
A long ramble but hope all is clear!
Cheers…
PS email notification of replies is not working for me.

[tonyt]

HELP!!!!

[Brendan]

Hi Tony,

Yes, you can try deleting from both locations. If sync was off at the time you deleted the form, it would have tried to delete the file from the local folder when in fact, it was in the iCloud Drive folder. So it may not have found the file to delete. Re-enabling iCloud Drive changes where Tap Forms looks for photos. If you were to delete a form when iCloud was enabled, Tap Forms would delete the file from iCloud. But it wouldn’t know that there may also be a local copy of it.

Thanks,

Brendan

[tonyt]

Thanks Brendan,

Would that deleting be on just one device and then use that as the first to sync after a sync reset, or would I have to delete the photos from all devices separately. If so, not sure how to do that on iPad?

Cheers!

[Brendan]

They would only come back if you turned off sync and turned it on again. Tap Forms doesn’t delete your photos when you enable sync, it merely copies them to your iCloud folder from the local folder. On an iPad, the local Photos folder can be found with iTunes File Sharing. The problem is you can’t dig inside that folder to delete specific files since iTunes won’t let you do that. You could use an app like iExplorer to dig into that folder though. You can download a trial from http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer

Another way to do it would be to make a backup of your data, copy the backup to your computer, unzip the backup, delete the photos you don’t want, then zip the contents of the backup folder again (not the unzipped folder itself, but the contents of it – that is, selecting all the files inside there and using the Compress # Files function in the Finder), then delete the Photos folder from the Tap Forms Documents folder in iTunes File Sharing, then copy the backup file into the Tap Forms Documents folder in iTunes File Sharing, then restore that file.

Sorry this is causing you so much trouble.

Thanks,

Brendan

[tonyt]

I deleted from ~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos
and Mobile Documents on my Mac. Backup was much faster, now they are back! Backup is WAY slower!
Is there a way I can start from scratch with Mac. MacAir and iPad?
Like I mean turn off everything, delete everything, sign out of everything, etc. Just need to know EXACT steps to take.
Cheers!

[Brendan]

Hi Tony,

0. Make sure you have a good backup and confirm the files you don’t want aren’t in your backup file.
1. Delete the ~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac folder on your Mac.
2. Delete the contents of the ~/Library/Mobile Documents/Tap Forms HD/Tap Forms HD folder. Not the folder itself. Just the contents.
3. Wait a while for the Mobile Documents folders on each device to finish deleting all of the files there. Because when you delete the contents of that folder on your Mac, eventually those deletion commands will make it over to the iOS devices and they will be deleted too. But it can take time. The other day it took over 10 minutes for a file I put in my iCloud Drive folder on my Mac to appear on my iOS devices. That wasn’t even using Tap Forms, just using the Finder. So your mileage may vary :-)
4. Delete Tap Forms from your iOS devices.
5. Re-install Tap Forms on your iOS devices.
6. Restore your backup on your Mac.
7. Re-enable sync on each device.
8. Wait for all devices to see each other.
9. Press the upload to cloud button only on your Mac.
10. Wait for all other devices to auto-sync.

That should do it.

Thanks,

Brendan

[tonyt]

Hi Brendan,
Thanks for being so patient, but computer savvy I am not. I am going down the delete files from ~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos
and Mobile Documents road.
Would I need to delete the local copies in ~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos on each machine separately – iMac, MacAir, iPad? When I have deleted from iCloud Drive on my iMac it says they will be removed from other devices as well as from iCloud, so that is good!
I have downloaded iExplorer and found an iPad photo folder that has ALL the photos in it – wanted and UNWANTED, so if I need to I can delete them from there too!
I hope this is the last time I will need to bother you.
Cheers
Tony

[Brendan]

When you delete the app from iOS, it will delete all the local files for you. That’s why one of the steps was reinstall the iOS versions. Yes, when you delete from iCloud Drive, it does delete from all other devices, but you have to give it a chance to do that. That’s what step #3 was trying to say.

[Author]

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