Sync problem, iPad overwrites new work on Mac

[Joanna]

Short version: Sync via Nearby. Changes made on Mac. iPad overwrites changes. I hadn’t touched anything on the iPad. I turned off the wifi on the Mac and closed the document on the iPad, then restored the last backup on the Mac. Got my work back. Turned the wifi back on, opened the document on the iPad, waited for a sync–blink–new work gone, iPad took precedence, even though, again, I hadn’t touched anything on the iPad except for opening the document.
Right now I’m gonna get that backup back and print what I need so at least I can work.
I use nearby sync, haven’t had problems lately until today. How can I prevent this?
By the way, it’s hard to find instructions for restoring–are they somewhere in the manual?
Thank you!
J

[Joanna]

update: Restarted both devices. Same thing happened.

[Sam Moffatt]

At some point there were changes on the iPad and those changes are now being replicated because it was likely unable to apply it earlier. When you restored from the backup, you saw the exact same behaviour because internally there are revisions that track changes to the records and restoring the backup also meant that internal sync value was it’s original version and the sync system applied the changes that were made on the iPad at some point.

I’d send a copy of the document on the iPad to your computer as a backup, delete the document off the iPad and then send a fresh copy from the Mac. Check out the Send document to another device page on how to shift the documents. This process will ensure that the two devices are in sync again at the cost of losing the changes that were made on the iPad. That’s the easy option.

As an alternative we can try to get the sync system to repair itself though I’m not sure if this will work. Nearby sync should be pull only which means that your device pulls updates from other devices so in this case your Mac is actually pulling the change from the iPad and overwriting it’s local copy. What might work is to restore the backup and remove the iPad from the sync settings. This will prevent your Mac from pulling any changes from the iPad. Open up the app on the iPad and all going well nothing should change (the iPad still needs to be connected to the Mac). For the records that are being overwritten from the iPad, if you edit them again once both apps are up, that should trigger the iPad to pull the updates from the Mac. Once you’ve confirmed that the records on the iPad match what is on the Mac, you should be able to add the iPad back on your Mac via Nearby Sync.

In terms of preventing, the TF5 sync system maintains a revision for each record. This means that edits to different records don’t conflict and can be merged together safely. This case is something different in that there was a change at some point on the iPad to the record and you’ve also made a change on the Mac to the same record. Tap Forms automatically tries to resolve this based on the data it’s got available and this time it looks like it got it wrong. It’s important to make sure that both your Mac and your iPad have the same Tap Forms document open at the same time on the same network for Nearby Sync to work otherwise the changes can’t be replicated between devices. For me when I was using Nearby Sync, I had a Mac always on with the document open and I made sure to sync my mobile device before doing any work on the Mac.

[Joanna]

Thanks so much Sam, that worked just fine–the easy option. I’m guilty of forgetting to open TapForms on the iPad when I work on the Mac, I always just forget. This might teach me….
Thanks again for your help!
J.

[Sam Moffatt]

Good to hear it worked :) I’ve done the same from time to time, I make changes to my shopping list on another device and then get to the store, open my TF up on my phone and realise that I forgot to sync before I left the house. It’s also easy to get to a situation where conflicting edits are made. I’ve hit the situation where I change something small on a record and then realise that it’s out of sync. You don’t notice it until Tap Forms guesses wrong on which of the edits should win the conflict.

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