[ray]

I am a new user to MobileSheets, it looks like a great solution for our music needs. We have several musicians who will be using separate devices (tablets, laptops and chromebooks) to view the same sheet music while playing of the same setlist.

Is there a way to have a "central" database where all of the songs are uploaded to and then each device can sync to that device? That way when new songs are added, they can quickly be synced to each device.

What we are trying to avoid is having to share songs from one device to another during rehearsal or before a service. I know they can be shared through Google Drive or Dropbox, but that would require each person to login into that app and then download it. We are just trying to make it easier for all of the musicians.

Please let me know if anyone has any solutions.

[Zubersoft]

At the moment, synchronizing to a cloud folder is probably the best option. You said, "that would require each person to login into that app and then download it", but you don't have to install any apps to use that feature. It will log in through a web browser, and then all you have to do is use the file browser in MobileSheetsPro itself. In fact, once you've selected the sync folder, you don't have to pick that folder again. Any time a user wants to pull the latest changes they would tap Sync Library->Sync to a cloud folder, then click Start. They don't to have to pick anything or change anything because everything is saved from the previous sync. Try this out and let me know if it will meet your needs.

If you are envisioning some other method for how you would like this all to work, please provide some details so we can discuss it. There are always trade-offs with different approaches. You could use a basic file sync to the storage location, for example, which works well if every user should have the exact same files with no differences between any of them. Then you would just need to have it set up so only one user uploads changes to that folder. 

Mike

[ray]

At the moment, synchronizing to a cloud folder is probably the best option. You said, "that would require each person to login into that app and then download it", but you don't have to install any apps to use that feature. It will log in through a web browser, and then all you have to do is use the file browser in MobileSheetsPro itself. In fact, once you've selected the sync folder, you don't have to pick that folder again. Any time a user wants to pull the latest changes they would tap Sync Library->Sync to a cloud folder, then click Start. They don't to have to pick anything or change anything because everything is saved from the previous sync. Try this out and let me know if it will meet your needs.

If you are envisioning some other method for how you would like this all to work, please provide some details so we can discuss it. There are always trade-offs with different approaches. You could use a basic file sync to the storage location, for example, which works well if every user should have the exact same files with no differences between any of them. Then you would just need to have it set up so only one user uploads changes to that folder. 

Mike

Thanks Mike! These both sound like very usable solutions.

For scenario one, what is the cloud folder? Is that just referring to some type of shared access to a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox?

Scenario two looks like a great solution also. When you talk about a basic file sync, what would they be syncing to? Would they all just sync to the same companion desktop app?

Thanks,
Ray

[Zubersoft]

Yes, it refers to a folder that you have selected for synchronization purposes in one of the supported cloud services - Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. This is a folder you want to let MobileSheets manage - you should not edit it yourself in any way. You can then share that folder with other users that want to be able to sync to it, or you can set up a shared account that everyone uses to access it.

When I talk about a basic file sync, you would need a separate application to manage that. That application would be just synchronizing a folder of your choosing (the MobileSheets storage location) to another folder which could be a cloud or network folder. This is basically what Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive do with their applications as they set up a folder that will be synchronized to the cloud. This is more complicated with Windows devices as you need to sync C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Packages\41730Zubersoft.MobileSheets_ys1c8ct2g6ypr\LocalState regardless of what the storage location is because the database file is stored in that folder. The one thing I'll say with this approach is that you just have to be very careful to ensure that most users are only pulling changes and not pushing changes, otherwise you could wind up with a mess (this is true for the cloud sync in MobileSheets as well - always use one-way synchronizations).

Mike