[John.JCAT]

This is a suggestion that involves just using slightly different wording for the sync dialogs to avoid confusion.  

I have only used your new "cloud Sync" a few times, but the first time I used it, I was trying to update my cloud sync location with quite a few changes that I had made in my Android tablet MobileSheets.  I followed the "Sync Library", then "Synchronize to a cloud folder" and selected the desired options and then tapped "Start" (I had previously created the cloud folder). I was impressed how fast it ran for the 1200 charts in my library.  Then I went to my Windows Surface tablet and tried to sync the changes down to that device, and I found that none of the changes I had made had been synced - and when I went back to the Android Tablet, all of my changes were now missing there as well!  I was very surprised.

In following up what I had done wrong, I found that the default option on the Android in the "Folder Sync Activity" screen was Sync Type: "Update Device".  When I changed it to "Update Folder" it worked the way I had been expecting.  I had just assumed that the "Synchronize to a cloud folder" action was just as is says:  Synchronize the changes I had just completed to TO the cloud.  I had not thought of it as an either direction sync.  I now see the reason for the either direction sync, so I don't think it should be changed.

My suggestion is to change the wording on the "Sync Library - Synchronize to a could folder"  be changed to "Sync Library - Synchronize WITH a cloud folder".  Had this wording been used, I would have more likely looked to see what direction the sync operation was being requested, and not lost all the changes I had made.

An easy change to make.

[Skip]

I suggest something more on the line of 'Up to a cloud/other device' or 'Down from the cloud/other device' as that terminology similar to generally accepted as information being sent or received by a device. 'Send to xxx' or 'Receive from xxx' [or just 'Send', 'Receive'] would also be more understandable to me.

The Two Way Sync popup is confusing also. It could use some explanation like 'Select which to keep' and 'Keep Both' for those you're not sure of, and 'Skip = don't sync?'. The 'Keep Both' should have a marker added to the displayed name [symbol in front] to aid in identifying those charts that may need more editing [or sync verification?] in the case of large numbers of charts [more than 1?  ] with changes.

In a number of cases when I did a 2 way sync, the popup displayed a chart in one column only, either client or server. I think I used the default settings.

[Zubersoft]

I've asked a few people all responded that they didn't really see any different between "synchronize to" and "synchronize with". I'm going to need a larger pool of people here to respond with what they think is best and makes the most sense, otherwise I'd rather just stick with consistent wording, and I'm already using "synchronize to another device" for the other option.

Skip - You can't keep both if there is a merge difference between both libraries. That is the same as skipping. So yes, skip = don't sync. I don't support a concept of saying "combine changes from both tablets" because that would significantly increase the complexity for pretty much every kind of difference and for some, it wouldn't even make sense.

If "Select which to keep" helps explain the purpose of the merge dialog, I'm happy to add wording like that. I just thought it seemed pretty self explanatory as the wording is "Use mine" or "Use theirs".

Thanks,
Mike

[Geoff Bacon]

Would a "diagram" with arrows showing the selected direction be easier for people to comprehend what they are aiming to achieve? (I know this is not a standard dialog!)
(or something like   "tablet  ==> cloud")

Geoff

[Skip]

Thanks for the info Mike. I don't use sync much so I'll try some more. 

'Use mine', 'Use theirs' will work fine for me [if I can figure out which one to use]. I use my devices [Dell 2-in-1 and Note Pro] interchangeably. Is there a way to flag which device has the new changes or did I miss something? What am looking at when the song only appears in one of the choices?

[Zubersoft]

If you set the "Sync Type" to "Update Folder", that indicates the tablet has all of the new changes and it will make the cloud folder match the tablet. Conversely, if you set the "Sync Type" to "Update Device", then the tablet will be updated to match the cloud folder. If you perform a two-way sync, the default merge behavior is to use the song that was modified last (or group that was modified last when merging setlists and such). If you change the merge behavior, you can control that too. 

In terms of the dialog, MobileSheetsPro doesn't necessarily know what changes are "new". It just displays the differences it sees. About the only thing it can key off of is the last modified timestamp for the song. If you think it would be useful to display that on the dialog, I can do that, but it might be confusing depending upon which data is being merged.

Mike