[Oz Cello]

I imported two new pdf's yesterday. One of them was a completely new piece, the other was a new pdf which was swapped into an old piece. I imported them to one library on one device, then exported them as an msf to a local folder, then imported the msf to the other 3 libraries on the same device. After each library had been updated I synced it to its online library. I then synced all the libraries on 3 other devices to the online libraries. I had updated all the devices to the latest firmware before I started (3.8.31 from FastSpring).

The completely new piece was fine - the file on the devices that were updated from the online library were the same as on the device I originally imported them to. With the piece that had a swapped pdf some of the attributes were stripped by the time the file got to the other 3 devices - the Artist, Album, and Setlist attributes had disappeared. All the attributes carried over to the other libraries on the same device I initially imported them to, but not to any of the libraries on the 3 devices that took the file from the online libraries.

Actually, my bad, I just checked the piece I imported from scratch yesterday which I thought had come through fine and one of the attributes is missing from the devices that were synced to the online libraries. The Setlist attributes aren't there but all the others (Title, Collection, Artist, Genre, Album, and Instrument) are. The Setlist attributes are present on all libraries on the device that I initially imported the pdf to.

All devices are Boox Max 3. I checked my sync settings and 'sync groups' is selected on all devices. I've never noticed attributes getting dropped in any previous syncs. Any idea why that's happening?

Guy

[Zubersoft]

A few other users have reported various sync issues with metadata not transferring, so I'm investigating this. I'll let you know what I find.

Mike

[Zubersoft]

I've been trying to reproduce issues with this, but I've had no luck at all. I'm going to need specific steps to take to reliably reproduce this issue, as I've been adding metadata, synchronizing to the cloud to push the changes, pulling those changes on other devices, and all of the metadata is always showing up on the other devices.

Thanks,
Mike

[Oz Cello]

I just turned on two of the devices, did the updates that were offered (still 3.8.31), synced one of the libraries from the main device to the cloud folder, then from the cloud folder to one of the other devices. I haven't made any changes since the sync described above but on both syncs the dialogue said it was making changes to metadata and the attributes it was making changes to were the ones that had missing data on the files I mentioned. The missing metadata is no longer missing on the target device. I tried on another library and the same thing happened. It seems to have righted itself.

I realise that that makes it sound like the metadata wasn't in place when I did the initial sync but I don't think that can have been the case because I didn't make any changes between importing the msf to the secondary libraries and syncing them to the cloud. The piece update was however a little bit more complicated than in my earlier post. I started by doing a file swap from the overflow menu. I then exported the updated piece and the new piece together in an msf. I then thought that the file swap might have affected the other libraries (i.e. swapped the file for the same piece in the other libraries) so I did a separate export with just the new piece. When I went to the secondary libraries the file swap hadn't affected the piece in those libraries so I either imported the msf with both pieces or just did another file swap. When I'm updating multiple libraries from one library by porting msf's from one library to another, when I go to import the msf to the new library the app says that the file already exists and asks whether I want to use the existing file or create a new one. Usually I use the existing file but for one of the imports I accidentally didn't so for that piece I now have two folders in the data folder - the original one which has both the earlier pdf and the newer one, and a new folder which just has the newer pdf. It's possible that having two folders with three files for one piece might have caused some of that metadata to get dropped. Let me know if you want me to try and replicate it. It would be tricky but I'd be happy to give it a go if you think it's worthwhile. I think I'm going to delete the piece from all libraries and start again. Interested to see whether that removes both folders from the file system but if not then hopefully I'm safe to delete them manually.

I'll let you know if any other new imports lose data while being synced but for now it looks like the app has sorted itself out. Apologies for any time wasted.

[Zubersoft]

No worries at all - I'm glad that it's all working properly for you now. We can shelve this for now unless the issue pops up again at some point.

Mike

[Oz Cello]

I've run into the same problem again. I deleted Wonderwall (the piece I was updating above) from all the libraries on the primary device (i.e. the one I import pieces to first). That deleted one of the two Wonderwall folders so I deleted the other one manually. I then re-imported the new version as a new piece to one of the libraries. I also imported a new piece to the same library. I then exported the two pieces as a single msf and imported it into the other libraries. When the two pieces were imported into the other libraries they had both been stripped of their setlist data. All the other data was fine. I added in the setlist data to the libraries that were missing it and synced all four libraries to the cloud then synced the other 3 devices to the cloud folders. No metadata seems to have been lost through the various syncs. I think I was wrong about the data being stripped by the sync, it seems like it's being lost during the export to msf. Would you mind trying to reproduce that?

Just FYI, when I re-imported Wonderwall to the 4 libraries on my primary device I only ended up with one Wonderwall folder on that device as you'd expect. After I'd synced the other 3 devices to the cloud folders they still had both Wonderwall folders even though I deleted both before starting, and both folders were needed - if I deleted one then one or more of the libraries wouldn't be able to find the pdf. I imagine that means that the piece is being put into one folder in some of the libraries and randomly into the other in other libraries and the unneeded folder isn't being deleted. I imagine I could manually delete both folders from the cloud before syncing and then I'd only end up with one folder for the piece in the cloud and one for the piece in each secondary device rather than two.

Anyway, I understand that you haven't really fully fleshed out the multiple libraries feature and that once versioning is introduced I shouldn't have a need for multiple libraries with the same pieces because then it will presumably all be in one library anyway but I thought I'd let you know what was happening just in case it's useful. If you could check whether there's a problem with exporting to msf that would be great.

Guy

[Oz Cello]

I've just imported a bunch of new pieces with the same result as last time. I imported half a dozen pieces to one library then exported them all to a local file as a single msf. When I then imported the msf to another library on the same device the setlist data was missing. Not all the pieces in the msf had setlist data but the pieces that did all had it missing when the msf was reimported to the second library. I re-inputed the setlist data and then synced it to the cloud and then synced the other devices to the libraries in the cloud and the setlist data came through fine. For some reason I'm losing setlist data when I export files as an msf and then import the msf to a different library. Do you have any idea why that's happening and what I can do about it?

Guy

[Zubersoft]

Yes, that is because, if you are exporting individual songs, there is no information about setlists stored in the song metadata. You'd need to export the setlists themselves to .msf (go to the Setlists tab, long press the setlist, tap Share->Export songs and files), and then all of the setlist information will be captured. It is handled this way so that the same song can be added multiple times to the same setlist (which is certainly a feature that some users utilize). This is not true for other metadata types like Collection, Genre etc - a song can only be added to those fields once. 

Mike

[Oz Cello]

Good to know. Thanks for the reply

[clarumedia]

Are set lists supposed to sync ? If not, please can this be a feature request !
Also, noticed the speed of sync being quite slow and wondered if you folks are comparing files or storing an MD5 hash of the file in your database for comparison ?
Also, wondered if there could be a "Quick Sync To Cloud" type button once the sync has been setup ?

[Zubersoft]

As long as "Sync groups" is checked, then yes, setlists are supposed to sync.

I do calculate an MD5 hash of every file and it's stored in the database. When synchronizing to a cloud folder, there is an md5 hash stored in the mobilesheets_hashcodes.txt file. This allows for fast comparisons without having to read any of the file data. I would need to see what selections you have made with your settings to provide any more feedback about why you are having issues with the speed. I'm also a solo developer - Zubersoft is a team of one.

All of the settings are already stored from the last sync, so if you select Sync Library->Synchronize to a cloud folder, you should just be able to tap "Start" to perform the sync. An automatic sync is something I'm going to look into later this year or early next year, depending on how long some of the other major updates take to finish.

Mike

[clarumedia]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for your response. 
Good for you being a one man band. I do the same thing :-)

I will have another go at syncing set lists.
If you're already doing an MD5 hash then it should be good and fast. It might be that my ASUS Chromebook Flip C433TA just runs like a dog...

I've tried with "Search for new files..." enabled and disabled.




This would be an awesome place for a "Default Sync" button. Auto sync would be cool as long as it could be disabled and/or not popup connectivity warnings in the middle of a show !

[Zubersoft]

If you want it to go quickly, uncheck "Check for updated files in cloud folders" as well as "Search for new files and create songs in both libraries". Both of those options dramatically slow down the sync.

Mike