Pocketpedia Sync Problem

[TiggyWink]

Hi just post in bug report but think this posting should go into support section!



Pocketpeida Sync Problem

Postby TiggyWink » Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:37 pm
Hi, I have been using the 'pedias plus Pocketpedia for many years. Just now tried to sync Bookpedia and then DVDpedia with Pocketpedia on iPad. When I click "Sync" I get the message "Pedia Not Found please launch the Pedia program on your Mac." Well both pedias ARE open on my Mac 10.15.7. I have Bookpedia & DVDpedia 6.0.1. My ipad is iOS 14.0.1.

Have shut down the pedias twice as well as Bookpedia with still no ability to carry out the sync. I have rebooted the iPad and there is no change in what I have described.


Any help on this please?

[FineWine]

Hi - I have deleted your post in the Support forum.

Sometimes macOS goes a bit weird when it tries to communicate with iDevices so here are some ideas to try.

Please download and install the latest beta's, they are very stable. https://bruji.com/beta/

Next are some maintenance tasks you could try.

Regular visitors to these forums will know I am big on the following:

1 - When I am updating App's to a new WHOLE number version or upgrading to a new OS version, or I know that there has been a major rewrite of the App such as with the case of all the pedia's and especially as Conor has rewritten them solely for 64bit technology, I do a complete uninstall of the old version prior to update. I achieve this by using a FREE program called AppCleaner which you can download from here. On using this App place a check mark IN ALL the boxes EXCEPT: ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia , which is the second line down from the top. This is where your data base is located. Ensure that is NOT ticked. You will loose your Preference settings though but they only take a couple of minutes to redo. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

2 - These are the Folders and Files that should be in ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia/ .

Covers
InfoTemplates
Plug-ins
Templates
AddMultiple.xml
autofill.xml
backup1Month.*****pd
backup2Months.*****pd
*****pedia Backup.zip
Database.******pd
Database.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd
Pocketpedia.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd-wal

The above entries in blue are Folders do not delete them or their contents.

AND of course do not delete: Database.*****pd OR Pocketpedia.*****pd

NOTE: ***** represents the particular pedia - Book, DVD, CD or Game

The Files with the suffix; .shm & .wal can be deleted as they are changed and recreated automatically again on each starting up of your pedia. You can think of them as a temporary index cache files. The Database and Backup files are self explanatory so not advisable to delete those. The .xml are again a type of index file for your autofill fields and are important so do not delete those two. You can clean these up to some extend within each Pedia's Preferences > Autofill.

3 - There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. Also especially in this case concerning the new macOS 10.15.* Catalina which has dropped support for ALL 32 bit App's.

This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

It is available in many languages and is regularly updated (about once a month).

4 - Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: 'hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields' these may not solve your problems but it wont hurt either.

5 - And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

Send them to Bruji Support: support@bruji.com

AND of course always carry out a general machine BACKUP first. Remember that all the pedia's also have the ability to create individual data base backups: File > Export Collection > Backup > Location of your choice

Hope you find these Tips & Hints helpful

[TiggyWink]

Well I tried most of your advice including copying and saving the database and downloading the beta version of DVDpedia. Then having used App Cleaner and deleting my current and latest version of DVDpedia unticking the database, I could not get the beta version to access the saved database. After spending quite a bit of time on this I used App Cleaner to delete the beta version and reinstalled the latest DVDpedia. Again had a problem accessing the saved database but eventually got it back. Whew!

I remain with the problem of not being able to sync Pocketpedia with the pedias on my laptop as already described.

[FineWine]

Part 2
1 - ensure both your Mac and your iPad are connected to your home WiFi network (Obvious I know)
2 - ensure you only have one Mac based pedia open at a time
3 - sync that pedia then close it and open the other pedia and sync.

Part 3
I can not think why you had problems with the Beta and then the non-Beta finding your data base. They should be in ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia To see the location of your current data folder, go into each pedia Preferences > General > Data folder location:
To reinforce (rewrite) that location; Hold down the option key and start up the pedia and Click the 'Choose database' button, navigate to the data folder location and select the Database.*****pd file.

[TiggyWink]

Hi

I probably had a mental block with the Beta version!

Have tried what you suggest. Shut down both pedias on laptop. Checked iPad and laptop connected to same wifi (tick√).

Opened DVDpedia. Tried to sync. Same message "pedia not found". Shut DVDpedia down and repeated process with Bookpedia. Same result.

iPad and MacBook Pro have been rebooted in last 24 hours.

Such a puzzle. Have never had this sync problem before.

Do you really think the Beta version would solve the problem? I am very wary!

[FineWine]

OK time for some drastic measures.
The Beta versions are the latest with all the newest fixes etc

Part 4
Refreshing of your Network
1 - Turn your mac off
2 - Turn your iPad off
3 - Turn your router off
4 - Restart the router, then mac, then iPad
5 - Try Sync again

Part 5
Resetting of your Network preferences.
1 - iPad Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
2 - Shut down and then restart your iPad
3 - Reconnect to Home Network: Settings > Wi-Fi > select your WiFi Network
4 - Try Sync again

Part 6
1 - macOS System Preferences > Network
2 - select Wi-Fi on the left and then click on the 'minus' button beneath it. That'll get rid of your existing configuration.
3 - Restart your mac
4 - System Preferences > Network > click on the 'plus' button and from the drop-down menu select Wi-Fi to set up a new connection.
5 - Try Sync again

Part 7
1 - Delete Pocketpedia off iPad (sorry you will loose your iPad pedia database)
2 - Restart iPad
3 - Install Pocketpedia 3.6.2 from App Store
4 - Try Sync again

Part 8
1 - go into the relevant pedia, hold down the Option key and from the Help menu choose 'Export for Pocketpedia'. (this creates a file with all the covers and info that you can then sync via macOS Finder) [It's quite large as it contains all the covers regardless if Pocketpedia already has them]
2 - Connect your iPad via USB cable to your mac
3 - Open Finder and select your iPad on the left under Locations
4 - Click on the Files tab in Finder. Pocketpedia should be listed here
5 - Drag the exported file into the Pocketpedia Files section and Drop it on top of the Pocketpedia entry to import
6 - When it has finished copying the file, (which may take some time - spinning Beachball) run Pocketpedia to have it import the file and all the covers.

I have now run out of ideas. If none of the above works then contact Bruji Support: support@bruji.com directly explaining problem and referencing this forum topic.

[TiggyWink]

Thank you so much FineWine for the time you have put in thinking about the sync problem and making suggestions towards a solution. I could not think why the answer should be so complicated since I've had no problem with Pocketpedia for many years. Connor has come to the rescue with this suggestion (below) which WORKED!!! Yay!

"I think it’s the new local network permission on iOS 14. Visit “Settings” app on your iPhone and then look for “Pocketpedia”. There will be a "local network” access checkbox make sure it’s checked so that Pocketpedia has access to receive data from the Bookpedia on the local network. You might have to relaunch Pocketpedia by swiping up in the app picker, that is initiated by swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen." Conor

[FineWine]

Well Well Well - you live and learn . Never new about that Setting. Mine is On by default . I am so glad that it is all sorted for you.

[thohei]

Big thanks to TiggyWink and Connor. This solved the problem for me as well!

[jmbismut]

I have a similar problem. On my wife's computer (a very recent MacBook Pro), syncing with iPhone or iPad is impossible. We use the beta versions of the apps. When requesting syncing from iPad, an authorization request appears on the Mac, and the corresponding message appears on the iPad. When permission is granted, nothing happens. If the process is cancelled on the iPad, the request reappears on the Mac, to no avail. In the firewall, the pedias have the necessary permissions. Stopping the firewall has no effect either. Access by PocketPedia to the wifi network is authorized on PocketPedia.
With my own Mac and Pedias and my iPad, everything works fine.
I have no idea on where to proceed from here. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Conor]

Thank you for all the details.

Please do try the dedicated network that fine wine mentions above and let me know what the results of that are. As that would let us know that the issue is with the network setup and not directly on the iPhone or Mac.

Kind regards,
Conor

[TonyK63]

Thank you to everyone about this. Was having issues after updating my iPad to iPadOS 15.4. The Settings -> Pocketpedia -> local network was turned off and flipping it allowed me to sync. Also appreciate learning about the export for Pocketpedia.