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Sync to Cloud
#1
Hi support!

First of all thx for this great piece of software, that I'm using for our quartet rehearsals since January 2018.

I'm using it on my PC for updating and editing the whole library and for adding new songs. Right now the library contains approximately 450 Songs - still growing. For the rehearsals we use two Win 10 tablets. As the two other members of our quartet use IPads they don't have the benefits of MobileSheets right now.

So to keep the two tablets in sync with the library that is serviced on my PC, I kept using the method of restoring out of the backup file (size around 250 MBs), as this seemed to be the most reliable method. As I am editing a lot of songs for our mixed quartet (mainly adapting Barbershop songs to our mixed formation) I decided to overhaul my whole library and complete missing meta data. During this process I tried out several ways to make the syncing process more comfortable (also for the case that there will come a time when all four of us can use MS). So I tried hard to set up cloud sync to be a reliable solution. Unfortunately it turned out to be not successful (first Dropbox then Google Drive).

So what is happening? MS is now set up working great including all the meta data. This is saved in a backup file. So whatever I try, I can go back to this state. Today I tried to sync over Google Drive for the first time. I set up the connection to Google for the first time, created a new folder and started the syncing (two-way + check for updated files in cloud folders + search for new files and create songs in both libraries + use data from the song that was modified last). I wanted to have a clean start and make this the folder, that every tablet is synced to in the future. The first 'upload' took around 10 mins which is really nice.

Now I tried something. I renamed a PDF (in a subfolder) from 'Songname (Mozart) (SATB)' to 'Songname' cause I'm going to rename all PDFs to a standard format - e.g. if there are 2 Ave Maria i write the composer in brackets, so that there are never two matching filenames. I expected the following: I sync again and MS will recognize that the file name in the matching subfolder changed and will then update the path within the song. Instead it created a new song in MS with the same name 'Songname' but without meta data. Is there a way to update the filenames without having to enter all the meat data again?

When I sync the tablet (all existing songs erased before) to a cloud folder there is no meta data at all. So how can I have all tablets synced to a cloud folder INCLUDING all meta data? I suppose all data needed is within the mobilesheets.db. Is there a way to put this file into the cloud folder too, so that all clients get the complete meta data from it?

In the end I decided to keep the the 'old' process of updating the tablets via backup file for now. But during all that try out process something got messesd up with the mobilesheets.db file I guess. During the whole try out I also changed the storage location under 'Set the MobileSheets storage location' from one Dropbox folder to a new Dropbox folder. I realized that there was a mobilesheets.db in that folder before. After the whole experiment I switched back to the original Dropbox folder (empty at this time) and restored using the backup file. But there were only all the song-folders created and no mobilesheets.db. Instead it is now lying somewhere locally. But still it worked. All the songs were there including all meta data.

I did the same on my tablet restoring from a clean state. But now the restore didn't work. It wrote there's a folder that cannot be accessed. I should direct to that folder and give access or cancel. Although it asks for an accessible cloud folder it gives me errors. When I cancel it restores but without meta data.

So maybe I have messed up something at some point. I was pretty sure, that the backup file will always save my life, but now it obviously doesn't. Maybe I missunderstood some points of your concept. Could you give me an advice on what I should do now? I didn't really try the companion as I would like to be independent from my home PC. Usually we have our rehearsals at home, but what if we're somewhere else and I'm the only one with an updated library?

Maybe I'm mixing things together right now. Hopefully you can solve my confusion...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Tom
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#2
There are a number of things I'll have to cover to answer all your questions. First, let's talk about the database location. It's stored in  C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Packages\41730Zubersoft.MobileSheets_ys1c8ct2g6ypr\LocalState and that location can't be changed because the SQLite library I'm using fails if I try to load a database file that is outside that directory (I believe it's a permissions issue with UWP). So if you have been storing your library in a Dropbox folder and you move it, the database location shouldn't be impacted by that at all. There are other files in that directory that don't move either, including all of your application settings. A backup file contains all of the song files in your library as well as all of the contents of the LocalState folder listed above.

Synchronizing in Windows 10 using the local Dropbox folder (or any other kind of automatically synchronized folder) is unfortunately unreliable and can cause issues. I typically discourage this and would instead advise users to use the Sync Library->Sync to a cloud folder option. Unfortunately, there are bugs currently with synchronizing to Google Drive and OneDrive due to the way those services store files and folders (everything uses a crazy ID versus a path). I have fixes to all of those bugs, but I'm still in the process of testing all the changes that I've made for the next update, as it has turned into a pretty big one. So synchronizing to Google Drive or OneDrive is not reliable at the moment (I'm going to do my best to get the update released within the next week but I want to make sure it's a stable update so I'm not rushing it). Synchronizing to Dropbox should be better, but there are still a few bugs I've fixed that apply to that as well. I would say using a library backup/restore is a better choice until the next update is released.

Synchronizing to the cloud absolutely should recreate all of the metadata for all of the songs (so long as you checked the option to sync groups). Have you tried this with Dropbox? Did it not work? I can test it again with a blank library to ensure it pulls down all the metadata, but I've been testing the library sync stuff for awhile now and I haven't encountered that problem. Using the Sync Library->Sync to a cloud folder feature does create a mobilesheets.db file in the cloud folder. That database should have all of the metadata in it. If you use another method to try and sync your library to the cloud (such as using the automatically synchronized Dropbox folder in Windows), the metadata will be missing, which is why you can't do that.

Hopefully with all of the fixes in the next update, renaming a song should work better for you, however the best way to ensure that your songs are always correctly matched up to the cloud is to assign a unique ID to the song ID field, or to ensure that every device has restored the same library backup file so that all of the songs have the same database table IDs. I may add a button to generate a unique song ID on the fields tab of the song editor as I imagine that may be useful for people to avoid conflicts.

As far as the problem you are currently facing, I'm not sure what path is listed on the backup file, but if you click the option to cancel, it should use the default path which is C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Packages\41730Zubersoft.MobileSheets_ys1c8ct2g6ypr\LocalState. If all of the metadata is in the database file in your backup file, there is no reason it wouldn't be restored and accessible in your library. Did you make sure to clear any active filters in case that was hiding the metadata? I'm just trying to think of possible reasons it didn't show up.  I might suggest rebooting your device, and ensuring that MobileSheets has write access to the folder you are selecting for the storage location. If it helps, you can send me the library backup file and I can restore it and try to see what's going on.

Mike
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#3
Hi Mike!

Thank you for your quick reply! Yesterday I tried to sync to Google Drive. MS created all songfolders including the PDFs as expected plus a mobilesheets.db. Unfortunately it skipped 4 songs - no folders, no PDFs. I guess this issue is related to the filenames. They all have in common, that they start with " 's ". With Dropbox I didn't have this problem. But anyway, GDrive was only for testing purposes. So Dropbox will be my go to solution.

Unfortunately I couldn't continue testing after that try tomorrow. Hopefully I can continue this weekend an check back to this forum.

Cheers,
Tom
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#4
Just to verify - if I create some files with names such as " 's file1.pdf" and use those during the sync to Google Drive, I should encounter the issue you described? If so, I'll make sure that gets fixed for the next update.

Thanks,
Mike
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#5
Hi Mike!

I had the opportunity to test the sync again - at least on MS on my PC. I created a new empty folder on Dropbox and synced my library to it. Works like it should. It created a mobilesheets.db and a mobilesheets_hashcodes.txt too. I will try the same thing on my tablet tomorrow starting with an emtpy library. Hope it will work too. If it does, I guess all things are solved for me. I'll let you know in this place.

Cheers,
Tom
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#6
Hi Mike!

Last weekend I had the chance to test everthing again. First of all I think I now know what I did wrong before. I used a Dropbox folder as local folder (MobileSheets folder) and also set that one one the tablet as local folder. You mentioned, that this is not worling this way. I didn't realize that it's not intended to be like this. and that 'sync to cloud' is something different.

Now syncing to this new created cloud folder works exactly as expeted.

Thanks a lot for your support!

Cheers,
Tom
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