Syncing with Mobile is the buggiest part of Accordance, by far

[brazyl]

While there are occasional failures in the rest of Accordance, I estimate that Syncing fails at least 95% of the time.  It is very very rare that I am able to complete a sync.  I've just spend close to 2 hours trying to sync my library, and have had very few (partial) syncs succeed.  ("Partial" meaning I only selected a small subset of what I really want to sync, in hopes of increasing the odds of avoiding having the whole thing fail.)

 

I use a MacBook Air (M1) runnnig 12.3.1 (21E258) and an iPhone 8 running the latest version of iOS.  The problems I'm describing have always happened, but they become more unbearable as my library grows in size.

 

There are several problems:

 

1.  Sync freezes on seemingly almost random books.

I say "almost random" because once a a freeze happens on a particular book, it often happens again and again on the same book.  But if I change the selection of books that are synced, it will often change to a different book.  So it is clearly not random but the pattern is unclear.

 

2. Lots of books get synced and re-synced EVERY SINGLE TIME.

At last count there are 43 books that re-sync even if I don't select anything new to sync, and even though they are already on my iPhone.  Given that sync can freeze on any book, syncing plays 43 rounds of Russian Roulette, plus one for every new book I'm trying to move to my iPhone.   Not that each book has a 1 in 6 chance of failing, but each book can fail, meaning that the odds of a particular sync job failing are extremely high. 

 

3. My sync selection is lost if sync is cancelled.  
If the sync fails and I have to try again, I have to also go through the entire hierarchy of books and find the selections I added.  This is probably not so much a bug as just a UX design oversight based on failing to consider the use case of failed syncing.  Once I select a book to sync, it needs to remain selected even if the sync fails. 

 

4. Very often the "Sync with Mobile Device" dialog box with the hierarchy of books never appears.  I would guess that that means the communication between laptop and iPhone failed.

 

5. Sometimes the mobile device appears in the list of devices even before I press the sync icon in Accordance on the iPhone.  I don't know whether this has any practical effect.  I haven't experimented enough to know whether this correlates with a failure to connect once I *do* press the iPhone sync icon.  I mention it only in case it turns out to be a useful clue for you about the nature or cause of some problems. 

 

6. Pressing "Stop" in Accordance on the Mac during sync does nothing.  I can only ever end a frozen sync by canceling on Accordance in iOS.  Again this doesn't have any direct negative impact on me but it might give you some idea as to where the problems are. 

 

7.  This is rare, but sometimes Accordance on iOS gives me "Sync Error: Could not create the Bonjour servers."  In fact it is possible that I've only ever seen that one time.  It happened just now, and I don't recall ever seeing it before.  Actually it just started happening repeatedly, but killing the iOS app and restarting it made that stop (for now).

 

8. Sync is all-or-nothing.  Let's say I'm trying to sync 3 new books to my iPhone.  If by some miracle I get through all 43 of the items that shouldn't be synced in the first place, and syncing freezes on the last of the 3 new books, why are the two that completed not left on my iPhone?  The sync process should handle every book atomically, and not rollback the entire sync when a single item fails.  That is illogical.

 

 

[Michael Hunt]

Can confirm many of the same problems. I really want to use this to keep my library organisation in sync but in the end default to using easy install.

[MacMan]

+1

[Michael J. Bolesta]

Yes. I have had a great deal of trouble with iPhone to Mac synching. It wiped out my text modules and necessitated deleting the app and hobbling together my most used modules. Tech support reports several cases. They are trying to replicate the issues so the programmers can address this malignant bug.

 

 

[ChristianB]

I just set up a new iPhone and tried to sync my modules form my Mac. It is such a pain. Easy install helps for some but there seems to be no way to get my user bibles on my phone which is a big let down. 

[Max Carlton]

I have experienced nearly all of the same issues when trying to sync content with Accordance. I'm able to sync User Tools and purchased modules with Dropbox no problem. But I have User Tools that I have converted to Permanent Tools that are only able to sync via the "Sync all content with Accordance" function. I've tried many times, but have the same problems as @brazyl has enumerated. Please fix wifi sync!

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

We’re getting closer to enhanced syncing in Desktop (no ETA on a release, only we’ve made great progress on it), and my guess is we’ll also add it to Mobile shortly afterward.

[MacMan]

After multiple failed attempts to sync my library, Accordance deleted my library--on both my iPhone and iPad Pro. Now I have to download the whole library to each of them and reorganize them. Then I have to HOPE that I can somehow get it to sync my User Bibles, which was the whole point of the process originally.

Any new syncing process needs to be foolproof or have a workable backup. This problem has existed too long. I can remember when syncing came to Accordance, so I know what it is like not to have it, but it is really hurting my workflow. I hope everyone on the syncing team is sleeping well and having some great days to help get this fixed.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

We’re making good progress on the syncing enhancements. It’s the one major improvement I’m looking forward to seeing released.

[Lawrence]

2 hours ago, MacMan said:

After multiple failed attempts to sync my library, Accordance deleted my library--on both my iPhone and iPad Pro. Now I have to download the whole library to each of them and reorganize them. Then I have to HOPE that I can somehow get it to sync my User Bibles, which was the whole point of the process originally.

Any new syncing process needs to be foolproof or have a workable backup. This problem has existed too long. I can remember when syncing came to Accordance, so I know what it is like not to have it, but it is really hurting my workflow. I hope everyone on the syncing team is sleeping well and having some great days to help get this fixed.

 

Just a note regarding reorganisation of downloads on iOS - there have been reports that this is unstable currently and can lead to disappearing items and library corruption.

Until Accordance updates their iOS version, it looks like resources are best left where the download puts them.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Indeed. For now, I’m not touching my module organization until this is resolved. I use the search to open anything.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

@Nathan Parker Any updates to iOS? Last was June 2022.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Michael J. Bolesta

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

We’re getting closer to the update that will enable v14 User Tools in iOS. We wanted to wait until some of the 14 Desktop bugs were resolved since that feature shares some v14 code, and we didn’t want to add additional new bugs to the iOS app.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

Add stability and usability, not bugs! Too many bugs already.

[KevinPurcell]

I hate to sound pessimistic, but users have been asking for better syncing for years and it has NEVER been even sort of included. The current system has been useless since the beginning. When I compare this to the competition it's a shame how far behind Accordance is. In other words, I won't be holding my breath and if I were a betting man, I'd set the over/under at March 15, 2029.

[dmwebb6]

51 minutes ago, KevinPurcell said:

I hate to sound pessimistic, but users have been asking for better syncing for years and it has NEVER been even sort of included. The current system has been useless since the beginning. When I compare this to the competition it's a shame how far behind Accordance is. In other words, I won't be holding my breath and if I were a betting man, I'd set the over/under at March 15, 2029.

I hope you are wrong, but I understand where you are coming from.  I don't know how many times that I have been told that the syncing solution was close and still we have no improvements.  My guess is the syncing will be fixed right after the android app is updated.  😁

Edited March 14, 2023 by dmwebb6

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

We’re actually making great progress on syncing enhancements. While it won’t be added in 14.0.5, 14.0.5 will put us one step closer to it. I hope you didn’t bet anything serious on the 2029 date. 🙂 

[KevinPurcell]

9 minutes ago, Nathan Parker said:

We’re actually making great progress on syncing enhancements. While it won’t be added in 14.0.5, 14.0.5 will put us one step closer to it. I hope you didn’t bet anything serious on the 2029 date. 🙂 

 

I've heard it all before. Prove me wrong, please. But I feel pretty confident about that 2029 date right now.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

2 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

We’re actually making great progress on syncing enhancements. While it won’t be added in 14.0.5, 14.0.5 will put us one step closer to it. I hope you didn’t bet anything serious on the 2029 date. 🙂 

 

Extremely disappointing. It has already been a long time since the iOS update, and a long time since 14.0.4 was released.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

5 hours ago, Michael J. Bolesta said:

Extremely disappointing.

 

Not exactly as Accordance 14.0.5 is laying the groundwork to ensure enhanced syncing goes smoothly once we release it, plus it’ll resolve some other issues as well.

[GYDOF1729]

What do you mean by laying the groundwork?  This sounds like a push for further down the road.  To quote Kevin Purcell..."I've heard it all before."

[mhanel]

I mean they could announce that they've hired 2 or 3 new programmers, recognizing that they're not meeting their customers' needs? That would show a tangible acknowledgement of the problems.

 

We're in danger of hitting 6 months  (I know we have a few to go still, but since these issues aren't going to be fixed in this next release, I'm judging future release progress by the progress shown thus far) since the release of version 14 without fixing issues that honestly should not have been in a release level software product.

[dmwebb6]

I looked forward to a new syncing process, but Accordance has to understand the skepticism being expressed.  I received this email from Tech Support on June 1, 2021 - "There have been many requests for updating the system used to sync in Accordance. This has become the top priority for the Accordance programmers for Accordance 14 which should be released by the end of this year.  We have been told that there will be a major overhaul to the syncing process to correct this once and for all. The plan is to do the syncing with Accordance and not use a third party system (such as Dropbox). "   Then in Oct 2021 I was told: "This is a very big task. The original plan was to have them ready by the end of this year. However, the logistics involved right now will probably not let that become a reality. There have been developments which likely will prevent the complete overhaul from happening by the end of this year. We did not want to make an announcement that we could not follow through on. We also need the notes syncing process to be right."  

 

 Not only was 14 delayed beyond that, but we are approaching two years since that email and still no improvements.  This is why we have the attitude "I've heard that before."  

Edited March 15, 2023 by dmwebb6

[Solly]

Most of 2020, and all of 2021 and 2022 projects I  planned never proceeded as I expected. The current year still feels slow and awkward for projects, but better than the last few years. Patience, even exceedingly gracious patience is required. The issues of delayed project completion due to nonavailability of needed resources, increased expenses, and lack of folk to carry out the project is impacting both individuals and businesses. I must adjust my expectations to match the reality of the current sitz im lebem. The problem—being patient is not my usual mode of operation, but I certainly am getting enough opportunity to practice the skill. May we all come out of these stressful years more resilient and forbearing.

 

Peace,

—Joseph

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

In terms of enhanced syncing, it’s not a push further down the road, but there are a couple of phases to it. The first phase will be some overall Internet connectivity improvements that are coming in 14.0.5 (this will also improve the overall connection performance between Accordance Desktop and Accordance’s servers). After that, we’ll be one good step closer to getting enhanced syncing rolled out in Accordance 14. We didn’t meet our end of 2022 deadline for it due to the bugs that we needed to resolve in Accordance 14, but we are making great progress on it while resolving the remaining issues customers have reported with 14.

 

In terms of programmers, while we haven’t announced any new hires publicly, and if there are any new hires, they’d be busy working behind-the-scenes instead of posting to the forums, it’s highly likely I’m not the only “new face” at Accordance who’s arrived in 2023. 🙂