iCloud Sync: Device List Oddity

[ArsAstronautica]

Some time ago I wiped the hard drive of an older iMac and installed Mavericks. I do this every few years to keep my hard drives clean of older items that get left behind in the upgrade process. I also installed TapForms (can’t have too many backups) Let’s call this machine #1-old-iMac.

Now I also recently bought a new iMac. For this Mac, which I’ll call #2-new-iMac, I transferred my files via Migration assistant from my venerable 2007 Mac Book Pro. Let’s call that machine #3-laptop.

OK, when I reinstalled things on #1-old-iMac, I noticed that it appeared twice on the list of registered devices. I guess the wipe lost whatever identifier was there formerly.

So today I decided to reset the iCloud sync in tap forms and make sure all devices are up to date. In addition to Macs 1-3, there is an iPhone and an iPad.

I first synced all the devices to make sure everyone had the latest version of the DB. I then reset the sync on #2-new-iMac and proceeded to re-sync all the other devices. The old sync from #1-old-iMac dutifully disappeared as expected.

However, the thing I see now is that #2-new-iMac and #3-laptop seem to have issues. While the syncing is working, it seems that TF is getting a bit confuse over #2-new-iMac and #3-laptop. If I sync #2, then #3’s syncing gets turned off. Likewise if I sync #3, then #2 gets turned off. Furthermore, #3’s name will appear in the list of devices, but not #2. If I sync #2, then the time tag in the list of devices is updated for #3.

I suspect that Migration Assistant, which is really a sweet tool but way to aggressive in transferring EVERYTHING has also transferred the ID that TF uses to keep things strait. I also suspect the thing to do is to delete the entire DB from #2 and re-install/re-sync, but before I do, I thought I post here.

[Brendan]

Hi ArsAstronautica,

Yes, that’s what has happened. There is a unique identifier that Tap Forms generates the first time you launch the app which helps it to identify that machine. When you copy all your files over to another Mac, Tap Forms thinks it’s that same Mac. But it’s not.

There is a file which stores the identifier that you’ll want to delete and also a setting in the defaults database which you would want to clear out.

Go here:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/FXLPHZS84D~com~clickspace~tapforms/iCloudStore.nosync

and delete the applicationUUID file you see there.

Now, enter in this command in the Terminal application:

defaults delete com.tapforms.mac applicationUUID

Then re-launch Tap Forms and it will re-generate a new unique ID for you. You’ll probably want to Reset iCloud Sync again too. Perhaps I should be doing that automatically when you use the Reset iCloud Sync function.

Thanks!

Brendan

[ArsAstronautica]

Thank you! I had found the applicationUUID file just after I posted and noted that its contents were the same for the two conflicted machines. I figured it was the culprit. However, I left it alone until I got your answer in case I erred.

The above worked just fine. All machines are now present and accounted for.

As to automatically deleting it when a sync reset is selected, that makes sense, though I expect the sort of thing I ran into does not occur all that often.

[Brendan]

Hi Ars,

Well it’s happened to about 3 people in total that I am aware of, including you :-) It’s quite rare.

[Author]

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