Some databases downloaded some on demand

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1

I have about 10 databases all in the same sync store in dropbox. Is it possible to download all items for some databases whilst only on demand for others? When I choose my dropbox account it gives me the option of selecting one or the other for all databases for not for individual databases.

Thanks for the update. After a little time playing with it and reading the help file its working great.

Personally I’m much happier with dropbox too, had all sorts of problems with iCloud so don’t miss that even if it was technically possible to use it!

2

Keep reading the Help a little closer. You set a Download Files option per Sync location, but you can set an option per database, or per Group in their Info popup (encircled “i” in the bottom Toolbar). However, for you to use these options, the Sync location must be set to Download Files: On Demand.

3

So, I have what I believe to be an extension of this challenge.

I am from the old DTTGO and DTPO syncing world. I have many databases, all with the most important items for mobile access replicated to the Mobile Sync folder, as they always had to be.

My databases are many, and they are large, ranging from 10-70 GB in size.

My requirement usage is very simple. I need to

  1. sync only over the local network
  2. only sync the “Mobile Sync” group of each database (or I will replicate this data to another Group, which is no problem.)

I have read through the documentation three times, and thought I figured out a way to do this with a small database that would fit on my iPhone (but certainly not a large one!).

Here’s what I have tried:

In the most general settings, I went to Sync Locations > Edit Locations > Local network > and turned on the small test database. It proceeded to download the entire database to the phone. Then I went back into that location and turned off syncing to that database.

Then I could go into that database and individually choose to sync a specific group via its own (i) panel. (But not the Mobile Sync group! – it is a “special group” with no “On demand only” sync setting! Do I need to replicate everything in these Mobile Sync groups to a new non-special group?

Then I turned on the entire database syncing on again, and a test document did sync.

As did all the groups in that database.

Is the following the only way to selectively sync only chosen groups?:

  • turn ON syncing of the whole database, and let the entire database download to the phone (this is totally impossible for most of my databases – there really must be a better way)
  • turn OFF syncing of the whole database
  • individually select “Download Files Always” in the (i) settings of the individual Group I want locally accessible on the phone
  • purge all other groups from the device manually, one by one? (This would be a half day of work, minimum, even if my phone had the space to accept an entire database in the first place)
  • turn ON syncing of the whole database
  • hope that it syncs only the groups I have selected “Download Files Always” for

*** when I have tried this with my test database, a deleted Group on the mobile gets re-synched to the mobile if I modify it on the Mac, even if I have deleted the Group on the mobile previously.

*** even with this very arduous workflow, I think all my groups are going to reappear on the mobile even after deleting them, when they are modified on the desktop.

Help please?!

For many of my databases, this operation will not even begin to work at all – I certainly do not have 70GB of free space on my phone to complete the initial the sync process of one of my large databases.

Please advise. I have relied on DTPO and DTTG for years as my basic data management tool on Mac, iPhone and iPad, and I upgraded today and found I am now without my data on my mobile devices. Panic! This is a business critical situation for me. I have deleted and reinstalled DTTG, just in case it was a faulty installation, to no avail. I updated the Mac app to v. 2.9.1 before starting all this.

The new syncing methods you have instituted look greatly improved and robust, and I’m excited to experiment in the future with local sync stores again, but definitely not in the short term. I am finding that sync settings are not as clearly presented in the layout of the app as I would hope, nor have I found the Help documentation exhaustive enough for this case.

Thanks for you help,
Jeremy

4

The Mobile Sync folder is no longer used (ie. you cannot Sync just the contents of that folder). I would move the files / groups out of the Mobile Sync group. You could create a new top level Group, named “Critical” or whatever, and move the contents of the Mobile Sync group into it. Then you could switch on On Demand for it.

If the Sync location is set to Download Files: On Demand, it is NOT “downloading the entire database”. It is only downloading the metadata for that database.

Yes, this sounds ideal for your situation.

This would be unnecessary if the Sync location was set to On Demand.

It will not Sync only these Groups. However, it will only download the contents for the files in those groups. All others will Sync metadata only.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. If you delete an item on one device, and modify it in another database, before Syncing the first device (and yes, there is an interval even when set to Automatic), the item will “reappear” on the first device.

5

Thanks much for your prompt and detailed reply.

I deleted the DTTG app and reinstalled, and set up the local connection again.

I think my problem before was that I did not set up the local connection initially to Download On Demand only, so everything was coming in, and I couldn’t find a way to change that setting on my local sync connection. I should have tried deleting just that connection and setting it up again.

I’m still confused about sizes of databases – the database size in DTTG says 6GB in the (i) for the database. The size of the database file on the Mac is 11 GB. I am only holding one group locally on the phone at the moment, and it only has one RTF file in it. In the iPhone Storage and Usage Settings, however, DTTG lists it’s Documents & Data as only 242 MB, so this does intimate that DTTG is not holding that 6GB locally. Does this all seem correct to you?

I see the only Group name in black is the one I have selected to Download Always. The others are grey.

Thanks,
Jeremy