3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

A place to discuss Bookends for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Post Reply
somainer
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:14 pm

3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by somainer »

I am hoping to accomplish 3-way sync of attachments (mostly PDFs) among iPhone, iPad and Mac - but unfortunately do not have enough storage space on my iPhone for all the files, so was thinking that there might be a way to sync only a subset of items to that device. Which, leads me to a few questions:

1) Can this be done using cloud sync (via iCloud)? From what I can tell there currently is no way to selectively sync only certain groups/folders this way, but thought I would ask in case I'm missing something.

2) Can this be alternately be done using Wifi sync? Website leads me to believe this would be the proper way to attempt it (https://www.sonnysoftware.com/bookendsontap/wifisync/), but I am not sure if/how I can/would configure syncing all items to iPad and only select ones to iPhone

3) If even possible via wifi sync, how would Bookends handle sync issues? For example, if I happened to annotate a PDF on both iPhone and iPad, how would Mac version deal with the two version next time I synced?
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by Serge »

Cloud Sync will try to download all available attachments to your device, and after a few bug fixes and improvements in the latest version of Bookends for iOS we saw a few options we can add, for example, for some selective files sync. But we will need to do more testing later.

Some sync hybrid when both cloud and wi-fi sync are used is possible, any sync method is quite complicated by itself, adding a mix of them would be even harder to support, but it still something we should look at.

For Wi-Fi sync we don’t merge changes, the newer file will overwrite the older one, and the whole will be transferred each time, for example 50 MB. Cloud sync, on the other hand, sends only the small changes, and it’s done by iCloud Drive service - so, Cloud Sync is the preferred way of syncing attachments.
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by iandol »

Apple documentation is not clear on whether "optimise storage" also manages iCloud Drive files on iPhone/iPad — this is explicit on the Mac. But I suspect it does manage this, moving local copies on and off as storage demands change? I have 4 devices syncing around 2GBs of Bookends PDFs (iPhone, iPad, two Macs) and sometimes some PDFs are not immediately available on my iDevices so they didn't sync until they were needed, suggesting they are on-demand.

I am very impressed with how syncing works, and it seems to handle collisions well (certainly of the database itself). I try not to edit PDFs simultaneously, but it would be easy to test — if iCloud uses file deltas, it may even be able to merge multiple syncs? No software solution can solve this problem 100%...
Yodalogger
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:38 pm

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by Yodalogger »

I would also be in favor of some sort of selective sync on a future release. Like the OP I would prefer not to have all the reference attachments downloaded to my iPhone but definitively want the attachments on my iPad.
talazem
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:18 pm

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by talazem »

Sorry to revive an old thread. But I wanted to see if there was any update on selective syncing via iCloud for iOS.

I am using a new iPad that only has 32gb storage. My Bookends PDF collection is more than double that size. But I had (mistakenly?) assumed that I could sync my database, then choose which PDFs to download onto the iPad. It does not seem to be working that way, and instead my iPad's storage space is being immediately filled.

Is there any way to benefit from iCloud syncing of Bookends, but without having all of Bookend's PDF attachments fill up my iPad's storage?
Jon
Site Admin
Posts: 10048
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:27 pm
Location: Bethesda, MD
Contact:

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by Jon »

I can't think of a good way, because PDF handling is done by the OS. The only workaround i can think of, which isn't great, is to keep two attachment folders, one in iCloud Drive that syncs, and one elsewhere (e.g. Documents) that doesn't. Only one can be the default, of course, but you can have more than one by simply attaching a PDF that's in the, say, Documents folder and telling Bookends NOT to move it. Now that folder will be searched for attachments by Bookends Mac if a PDF isn't found in the default folder, which I'm assuming will be in iCloud Drive. You'll have to manage which PDFs go where yourself, though.

Jon
Sonny Software
talazem
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:18 pm

Re: 3-way sync among iPhone, iPad and Mac

Post by talazem »

Thanks for the clear reply, Jon. That is a creative solution indeed, that should be perfectly functional for someone starting afresh. Unfortunately, in my case, it would be unwieldy as I already have a large collection of 7k attachments.

For what it's worth, since writing two days ago when I was first setting up the iPad, I've noticed that it filled up to about 29GB, 2/3 of which are iCloud documents--mostly PDFs from Bookends' iCloud folder. It appears that iOS is auto-managing its disk space viz iCloud, keeping a few GB to keep the machine working smoothly. The iPad continues to function smoothly. In Bookends, I can still open up a reference and press on the attachment icon and it will import that attachment so that I can read it. We'll have to see how it all holds up, especially if other apps or iOS updates are installed.
Post Reply