I have a relatively small database which I want to keep synced across my devices. Currently I have 63 record in my database which I entirely created on my Mac. Sometimes I will notice that my iOS devices will not properly sync. For example my iPhone only showed 62 records. Even after I swiped down to refresh as well as force quitting the app and relaunching it.
I had to go one by one to see which of the 63 records. I then changed the value in the missing record from my Mac and then the iPhone synced.
I love Tap Forms and use it for quite a bit but I am frustrated with basic synching issues. Why should I have to manually look for all my data hunting for sync errors?
Are there any ways to debug the sync issues? I am using iCloud for synching is there a better more reliable solution. Right now I don’t have confidence in the current synching for a product that has been around for quite some time.
Hopefully someone has tips/tricks for reliable synching.
My personal suggestion is to use the Nearby Sync or if you can run a CouchDB server to do sync’ing. Nearby Sync only works when both devices are on and on the same network though CouchDB can be configured to be internet accessible.
iCloud has challenges I’ve found in terms of throughput in general and can take a stupid amount of time to resync. It feels to me that iCloud over the years has become less reliable but for the most part I’ve moved over to CouchDB based sync.
I too have had many problems with iCloud sync over the years. Unfortunately being a complete computer non expert and having looked at instructions on how to set up CouchDB sync I am stuck with iCloud as there is NO way I could CouchDB setup. Even if I could follow blindly the instructions I would not have a clue what I was doing! I wish I did / could!
Did I read somewhere here Brendan was working on a different sync system for the mere mortals?
Hi Tony,
CouchDB is actually quite simple to setup. You download the app, double-click on it to launch it. Then give it a username and password to setup your first admin user. Then click the verify button to see if it’s all setup.
That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Then you go to Tap Forms and put in the address of your Mac, then that same username and password into the Apache CouchDB screen and click the Sign-In button.
You could even test it out with a new document just to see how it works. And of course, if you have any questions, you can certainly post here for help. Or email me directly if you like.
Then you go to Tap Forms and put in the address of your Mac
Not sure what to do here?
If I shut down the Mac do I have to sign in each time to Apache CouchDB?
Do I disable iCloud sync on all devices to try this out?
Sorry to be slow but not a computer tech
Thanks for the help and I am sure there will be more questions to follow.
Is there a full set of setup instructions anywhere?
You need to configure Apache CouchDB to launch on start, there is an option for that or you can drag it into the autostart section of your user account. It does mean you need to login to start CouchDB. There are some instructions on how to get setup on the wiki and I did a quick video as well. I use a static IP address, I have some vague recollection that changes in iOS block HTTP traffic to DNS hosts but not to IP addresses so that works for the local network. Setting up a static address should be a matter of seeing what your router’s DHCP settings are and making sure you pick an address outside of it or if it’s more advanced you can configure your router to assign a static IP address. For me I configured my router to assign IP addresseses .100 to .200 to DHCP which means any IP address from .2 to .99 are available for manual configuration (.1 on my network is the router).
If you want to set up external access or similar then you need to port forward, get an external static IP address or setup a DNS entry with a proper SSL certificate. Not impossible but a fair amount of work to have happen.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by
Brendan.
Hi Tony,
To get the address of your Mac, go to System Preferences, then click on the Network icon. You’ll see your IP address right there.
When I look at mine it says: Wi-Fi is connected to TapZapp and has the IP address 10.0.0.195.
Whatever yours is, just put that into the server address field in the Apache CouchDB settings in Tap Forms as a URL, like this: http://10.0.0.195:5984
Your’s will of course be a different address than mine.
If you shut down your Mac you’ll just need to turn it on again to be able to sync to CouchDB. You can setup CouchDB to launch at startup too.
You don’t have to do anything to iCloud sync to try this out. I suggest you start with a new document and try it out on that first so you don’t interrupt your existing documents. Once you’re comfortable with syncing your new document to CouchDB, then you can disable iCloud sync on the other devices and switch them to using CouchDB. But don’t just skip right to that, try it out on a test document first.
Thanks,
Brendan
Just watched your CouchDB tutorial Sam. It’s really awesome!
I guess my documentation is a little out of date. Also your link above linked to the 5.0 docs instead of the 5.3 docs. Just an FYI. I’ll edit it to change it.
Oh good catch, let me update the video description as well. I used Google to grab the link and didn’t realise it was the older version.
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