Problems Syncing to iOS

[Alan Hayman]

Hello,
I have a 2020 27-inch i7 iMac, running MacOS Monterey 12.3.1, and a 2021 M1 iPad Pro 12.9, running iPadOS 15.4.1.
I had already used Air Drop to copy my database from the iMac to the iPad. I accessed Tap Forms “Preferences”, clicked on “Sync”, and with my document open on both devices, I tried to add the iPad to the empty list of devices to sync, but the list remained empty when I clicked on the Plus button.
Is there something else I should be doing to get this to work?
Thank you!

[Brendan]

Hi Alan,

On your iOS devices, make sure you have the Local Network option enabled in the Privacy settings in the Settings app for Tap Forms.

See if that solves the problem. Otherwise try restarting both your devices. They should see each other when you add them on the Nearby Sync screen. As long as the document IDs match. That’s the db-.... value you see on the Sync Settings screens in Tap Forms.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Alan Hayman]

Brendan,
Thanks for getting back to me.
I had the Local Network enabled on the iPad. That didn’t work.
Then, I restarted my iPad. That didn’t help.
I verified on the Sync Settings screen on both the iMac and the iPad that the document IDs matched.
Nothing helped.
Then, I noticed on the Sync Settings screen on the iPad that there were no Peers selected. So, I tapped the plus sign, and my iMac showed up. The green dot appeared, and I verified that changes that I had made in the document on the iMac showed up in the document on the iPad.
Oddly enough, clicking the Plus button in the Sync Settings screen on the iMac still did not show the iPad. So, apparently, the pairing has to be initiated from the iOS device. Is this the way this is supposed to work, or is there a bug in the desktop version of Tap Forms?
Anyway, I got syncing to work by initiating from the iPad. If I want to sync my iPhone, I’ll probably have to initiate it from there.
Thanks for your help.
Alan

[Alan Hayman]

Brendan,
Just to follow up . . .
Using the same approach, I got my iPhone, running iOS 13.4, to sync as well.
It just takes a little while to familiarize myself with the app, but I’m very happy with Tap Forms.
Thanks,
Alan

[Brendan]

Hi Alan,

It’s best in a 3 way sync to have the Mac be the “source of truth” and all your other devices connect to it. The Mac then pairs with the other two devices. So you don’t have all this criss-cross device syncing going on. Your iOS devices sync to the Mac and the Mac syncs to the iOS devices.

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