iCloud Sync Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How do I know when iCloud has gotten into a state where it is having trouble keeping my devices in sync?
A. There are a couple of signs that indicate that iCloud is no longer correctly processing all data changes. These include:
- A change made recently on one device has shown up on another device, but a change made before that has not
- One or more of the views in the product is missing some icons and/or displays the word “NULL”. One example of that can be seen here:
Q. Does iCloud Sync work when LifeTopix is not active?
A. First we should clarify what “active” means. Suppose you are using LifeTopix on your device. During that time, LifeTopix is running in the foreground and is considered “active”. On most iOS 5 devices, if you then switch to another app, LifeTopix will go into the “background” rather than exit completely. When LifeTopix is in the background, it is not considered “active”. Only the app you see currently running on your device is considered “active”.
LifeTopix can only receive and process sync updates from iCloud while LifeTopix is active. This means that only once you make LifeTopix active by running it on your device will it begin to receive and process updates from iCloud.
Q. If I disable iCloud Sync, will the LifeTopix data that resided on my device before I enabled iCloud Sync be restored?
A. No. If you disable iCloud Sync, LifeTopix will contain whatever data it was able to most recently retrieve from you iCloud account. Therefore, it is critical that you perform an online backup of your LifeTopix data via LifeTopix Settings before you enable iCloud Sync.
Q. I see a red “iCloud Unavailable” in the iCloud Sync cell of LifeTopix Settings, but I have enabled iCloud in the device Settings. Why is iCloud unavailable?
A. You would see this situation if your device’s Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data value is set to “Off”. Set this to “On”. If LifeTopix is running in the background on your device, you will have to kill LifeTopix and re-start it before you retry the iCloud Sync operation in LifeTopix.
Michael Roberts
First, let me say “Thank You” for a great product. I’m beginning to use LifeTopix more and more in my daily life and appreciate having my information in one place.
I recently upgraded my iPad to a newer model. I had set my old iPad as the primary device when I first enabled iCloud Sync. I would now like to wipe my old iPad and give it to my son. What happens to my other devices or any new devices I might obtain in the future when the initial “primary device” is gone? When i check the iCloud Sync Diagnostics, my new iPad knows my old iPad is the primary Can I make my new iPad the “primary device”?
LightArrow
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the kind remarks, and for reaching out with the question.
After the initial iCloud setup, the role of the “primary device” is informational only — it just lets you know which device had originally populated the LifeTopix. All devices are considered equals once iCloud sync has been enabled on them from a LifeTopix perspective. So even if you wipe it clean and give that to your son, other devices and new devices will still “think of is” as the primary device, but it has no actual impact. It is just historical information. So if you bought a new iPod touch, installed LifeTopix on it, and turned on iCloud sync, it’ll say something like “The LifeTopix information on this device will be replaced by the information originally populated from Michael’s iPad” (assuming that was the name of the iPad when it was used to initially populated iCloud as the primary device). But like we mentioned, that just lets you know which device was originally used as the primary device, and that fact has no ongoing operational impact. Your son may have renamed the iPad, but since it is not part of the iCloud sync of LifeTopix anymore, it is not in the picture.
In the future, if you ever reset iCloud sync again for LifeTopix, then a new primary device is identified (for informational purposes again) so that you are informed which device of yours you used to turn iCloud sync on first this time, when you turn on iCloud sync on your remaining devices.
We hope that helps.
Best regards,
Team LightArrow
Michael
My work associates and I are wanting to sync our lifesynx together so we are all on the same calendar for surgery schedules. How do we do that?
LifeTopix Support
The easiest way to do that today would be via the collaboration capabilities we have provided. For example, you could create an event for a surgery you have scheduled on 2/28/12 at 10:00am in operating room B. Then you would Share via Email that event to your co-workers. When they tap-and-hold that event in their email, they will have an option to “Open in LifeTopix” which will create the event in LifeTopix on their device and add it to the LifeTopix My Calendar (and, optionally, the device Calendar) on their device. They can make changes to that event and Share via Email back to you. When you open that up, the changes will be applied to LifeTopix on your device, and your calendar(s) will be updated.
We will be making changes in the next release to provide you more control over utilization of multiple calendars if you have more than one configured on your device. Once we have done that, we will investigate whether or not Apple provides us interfaces that would allow some form of sync’ing of calendars with other users either via iCloud, Bonjour, or some other technology. There will be some tricky security issues to sort through, so we’ll just have to see how that all plays out when we get to that point.
Best regards,
Team LightArrow.