Problem with sync after iPad restore

DEVONthink To Go Tips
1

Hello,

A very annoying problem happened today which took a long time to solve.

Everything was working perfectly between my iMac, iPhone and iPad (sync store on personal webdav server). Now, the iPad was behaving erratically since the iOS 11 update so I finally found some time to do a backup, wipe and restore from iTunes (BTW, it really helps iOS start afresh and operate faster, no need to to a clean wipe and reinstall everything).

Everything on the iPad restored OK except the sync store data in DT. So I entered the server URL and all the passwords. Then I enabled the two databases in that sync store, which are the default Global Inbox and my main database. The Inbox was enabled OK, but when I turned on the main database the app became unresponsive and quit after about 20 seconds.

When I launched DTTG again, the main database was enabled in the sync store but DTTG didn’t sync anymore. The data was still intact in the app (so it seems, all groups and items were listed), but I got a message in the log (cloud icon with triangle) saying “uploading of 4789 items impossible”. I only store metadata on DTTG, and there are only 3 or 4 PDFs actually downloaded to the device.

I cleared the message, quit DTTG, launched it again. I got no log message but nothing synced anymore, not even the Global Inbox.

Then I realized that I made a very small typo in the name of the sync store as entered on the iPad (not the URL or AES key, just the sync store name above the AES password field). So I think it just created a new sync store or tried to access an non-existing one, without telling me anything even remotely helpful.

After successfully connecting to the WebDAV sync store (with the correct name), DTTG then proceeded to upload 4789 items and then synchronize them all over again, which seems a bit pointless and takes a long time. I don’t see what could have triggered this, nothing has changed on the iPad’s databases. It should normally just check for new and modified items on the WebDAV server, which usually takes around 3 seconds.

During all this time, DTTG on the iPhone and DTPO were communicating happily using the same sync store (I checked).

Most of the time DTTG works flawlessly and seems like black magic, so when the technology starts behaving like this it’s quite frustrating. IMHO it should provide some more helpful information when something goes wrong like this. Someone with ten times more items in his or her database could go insane over this…

Thanks.

2

Question: If you mistype something, how would the application know it’s not intentional?

3

I’m not sure I understand the question, but then again I don’t know a lot about how WebDAV works. If I type “cd whatever” in Terminal, I get an error if there’s no directory called “whatever”. When you ask for a sync store, isn’t there a way to see if such a store exists and, if it doesn’t, say something like “No such store at the specified location, would you like to create one?”

4
  1. This isn’t Terminal. :smiley:
  2. If you are connected to a WebDAV server and volume, the dropdown menu should show the names of existing syncStores. If you type something it, it will treat it as a new syncStore to be added.
5

I know this isn’t Terminal :slight_smile: But if DT is smart enough to find duplicates better than I can, then surely it can identify something wrong in the WebDAV sync store name. When I restored the iPad, I couldn’t see the existing sync stores. I was only presented with options to create new sync stores (WebDAV, Box.com, CloudMe). So I selected WebDAV and than had to manually type in the sync store name I had configured (this is where the typo was made, the .dtCloud filename).

I don’t think I could access the existing stores just by entering the WebDAV server credentials. At least it wasn’t clear to me. You have to enter, all on the same page: server address, user and password, sync store name and AES key. There is no way I can see to access a server, see which sync stores are there, select one and then enter the AES key.

IMHO there should be a confirmation dialog for doing just what you mentioned: “This will create a new sync store, confirm?” Just to avoid this sort of confusion.

6

Sorry, the option to see the existing stores is on the Mac.

The suggestion about creating a new syncStore is noted.

7

Great. Thanks!