Attachments Not Downloading from iCloud to iPad Pro

A place to discuss Bookends for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Post Reply
stburrow
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:19 pm

Attachments Not Downloading from iCloud to iPad Pro

Post by stburrow »

I am new to Bookends, having most recently worked with EndNote X8, Papers 3, and Sente. I use a MacBook Air (running Sierra and latest version of BE) and an iPad Pro.

I work at a university during the day, often reviewing literature on my MacBook at my desk. I found out early in using BE, that my university's wireless service (Eduroam) blocks WiFi sync between my MacBook and iPad, so I switched to synchronization through iCloud. I have observed some disturbing problems.

After adding approximately 50 papers to my MacBook Air BE library this weekend and synchronizing them to iCloud, none of the pdf attachments would download into the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro BE library shows the new library entries, but nothing will pull up the associated pdf attachments. I erased the iPad Pro library and re-created it, downloading via wifi synch at my home. After confirming that the library was re-established on the iPad Pro, I created five 'test' documents on the MacBook and synched them to iCloud. Once again, the iPad Pro shows that these test documents are present and shows their addition to a new static group that I created. However, the attachments will not download into the iPad Pro, so I cannot check to see if the unique annotations that I added to these test references were synched over to the iPad via iCloud.

i also noticed that BE is creating multiple versions of the same attachment file in the iCloud library folder. What gives with that?
stburrow
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:19 pm

Re: Attachments Not Downloading from iCloud to iPad Pro

Post by stburrow »

This reply is an Addendum to My Earlier (Original) Posting on this Topic

After giving this situation some thought, I tried unlinking my local libraries from iCloud, deleting the attachments and libraries from iCloud, and re-uploading my library. Although all of this appeared to go well, no file attachments were uploaded from my MacBook Pro library to the iCloud folder. I tried changing some file annotations and re-synching, but no pdf uploads occurred and none of theses attachments would synch down to the iPad Pro. Then I had an idea.

I suspect that my university blocks anything that even resembles peer-to-peer file sharing through their wireless service on-campus (Eduroam) out of fear that students will share copyrighted materials (movies, music, software) illegally. This block when I am working on-campus prevents me from synching my documents back to my iPad prior to leaving for the day on my commuter bus. However, I am carrying my own wireless hotspot in my pocket in the guise of my iPhone. I can connect the MacBook and the iPad to that hotspot and WiFi sync BE between the devices. Problem solved? Not quite.

In experimenting with this alternative approach to syncing my devices, I found that when I execute the sync with 'All references' selected on the MacBook, no changes in my test documents were transferred to the iPad through the local iPhone internet hotspot. Only when I performed the synchronization with 'Selected groups' checked did anything (annotation changes) transfer from iPad-to-MacBook or macBook-to-iPad. Possibly a bug?
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Attachments Not Downloading from iCloud to iPad Pro

Post by Serge »

Cloud Sync: you should manually move all your attachments on Mac from your current location to the “Bookends folder with icon” on the iCloud Drive. Both apps should see attachments in this folder.

> BE is creating multiple versions of the same attachment file in the iCloud library folder.
Could you please send a screenshot to bookendsontap@sonnysoftware.com.

Wi-Fi sync: just tried to sync for 'All references' and all annotations were synced fine both ways. Please try to open any modified PDF with Preview on Mac, does it show your recent annotation changes?
Post Reply