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Forum thread: Iphone sync
| Brendan Jones 22 July 2010 16:11 |
Component: (stearsoft.co.ukSTEARsoft web interfacePalm-device) STEARsoft version: 5.0.4 Support request: Am I reading the Help section right when it says you can only sync by WiFi? Not through the cable? If so, I won't be able to use STEARsoft on my iPhone. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 22 July 2010 17:46 |
Hi Brendan, Yes, you have read that pretty much correctly. The synchronisation is actually a network synchronisation to be completely correct. Although technically, you could use a 3G connection to link to your STEARsoft PC, it's a bit fiddly to set up, and I doubt anyone does it. Ask if you want to know more. Where are you synchronising? Home or school? WiFi access points are pretty cheap now, and getting your iPhone connected to the internet via WiFi gives significant other benefits: Compared to 3G connection, I believe it is faster, cheaper and less hungry on the battery. I use an iPod-Touch, which is effectively an iPhone without the phone bit, so all my connection is over WiFi. At school, I don't even have to switch my PC on now for registration. I can take it on my iPod and in about 3 seconds sync over WiFi to a central server running STEARsoft. The office has mine and everyone else's data quicker than ever before. I also get my morning email on it in the staff-room over WiFi. If you want to go the 3G route, you can open the 13031 port on your computer through the firewall to let the world access STEARsoft on your computer. There are obviously real dangers regarding protection of your data and at the very least you'd need to set good passwords for the admin and all user accounts. However, you'd then be able to Sync your iPhone from anywhere in the world with a 3G signal!! - and access the web interface too. Hopefully you can find a way forward without the cable. Do ask again if you want to pick my brain setting such things up. Kind regards, Marcus. |
| Brendan Jones 22 July 2010 23:05 |
Hi Marcus, Yes I am syncing at home, using a laptop without WiFi. I thought it would be as simple as syncing using the iPhone cable attached to the PC. I'll have to go back to the Palm version. Cheers, Brendan |
| matthew Twomey 24 July 2010 12:46 |
Hi Marcus, i've just added the free trial version, added all the info for classes and want to get the information across to the iphone, but it keeps coming up 'synchronisation failed' and 'device ID mismatch', where do i need to go to correct them? Also I assume the device ID is what I have called the iphone? Kind regards Matthew |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 13:50 |
Hi Matthew, Go in to the administrator section of the PC web-interface. Find yourself in the main 'Teacher accounts' list. Click 'edit' to edit the details of your account... Select the information that appears in 'Hotsync ID' and completely delete it (use the Backspace or Delete key). Press Save. Go to your iPhone and try Synchronising again. I'll post again in a few minutes with details of actually what's going on... Please ask again if it doesn't work or you have further troubles setting up. Unfortunately the initial setting up of STEARsoft, especially synchronisation can be a bit trying if you don't immediately hit the jackpot. Once it's sorted though, you should find it to be very quick and easy to use on a day-to-day basis. Regards, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 14:05 |
Matthew, This is what happens (may help understand what to do and direct any further trouble-shooting) When the iPhone syncs to a PC installation of STEARsoft, it sends to the PC the username of the account to synchronise with and a unique 'device ID' of your iPhone. This matches to what is called the 'Hotsync ID' on the PC (because this is what it is called when synchronising with a Palm Device). The PC looks up the username. For first use, the 'Hotsync ID' will hopefully be blank (not set). The PC will fill in the 'Hotsync ID' with the 'device ID' given by the synchronising iPhone. It will then know it is a first synchronisation so force a one-way sync (everything on PC to iPhone or vice-versa). When the iPhone subsequently synchronises, it checks that the 'device ID' given matches the 'Hotsync ID'. If not, it indicates a different device which will cause problems to the synchronisation logic (it would get in a real mess), so prevents continuation (with the message you are seeing). Similarly, problems would occur if you tried to synchronise the same iPhone to different user accounts, so it won't let more than one user account have the same 'Hotsync ID'. You can simply delete the 'Hotsync ID' from the original account before synchronising with a second account if you need to swap username. You're hopefully sorted by now, but if anyone else finds this thread, hopefully that will help further. Yours, Marcus. |
| Brendan Jones 24 July 2010 14:14 |
Hi Marcus, Just an update on my sync question. I read the post from Matthew and the answer you gave, and tried the same using the iPhone connection cable. It worked. I now have all the class data from the PC installation now on my iPhone. Will test to make sure all is well. Cheers, Brendan |
| matthew Twomey 24 July 2010 14:18 |
Hi marcus, i've completed the instructions to delete the Hotsync ID, saved it, but this still does allow the sync to occur, though it does not come up again with device mismatch, and when I return to the same page, the same incorrect data is there. Is it worth deleting the teacher account i've created and starting all over again? |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 14:19 |
Dear Brendan, This may not help you, depending on your situation... but it might, and it might help anyone else looking... Your laptop doesn't actually have to have WiFi. One common solution is to have a 'Wireless router'. These are actually provided free from most broadband providers in the UK. A 'wireless router' has a connection to your Broadband, typically 4 ethernet ports (that you use to physically connect with an ethernet cable to any non-wifi computers) and a WiFi aerial to connect to any WiFi devices. Such a solution allows all your computers and mobile devices to connect to each other and directly to the internet. Such a router also invariably provides a good firewall which protects all your connecting devices from the dangers of hackers and saves the need for configuring such things on your computer. Such routers start from about 20pounds (GBP) online here in the UK (and they are often free through your broadband provider). Prices may be more in other countries, but you certainly shouldn't have to pay more than 40pounds (GBP) equivalent. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 14:20 |
Matthew, Don't delete and start again. We should be able to get this to work... I'll write more in a moment. Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 14:23 |
Matthew, If it doesn't come up with device mismatch, that's probably OK now (it might have been a subtle error before). If it doesn't sync, what message does it give now (on the iPhone), or does it simply not connect? Yours, Marcus. |
| matthew Twomey 24 July 2010 14:37 |
it just says 'Synchronisation failed', 'trial licenses limit synchronisation to 50 sessions. please support.....', there is a network connection there since when under the admin bit and i stop the server, the iphone keeps searching. although it may not be to do with anything in the Palm details of the teacher account the data in the Hotsync ID that is filled in after deletion is '8f5ebecddf0c9e0f0c891e4b87ae48af7209fa49' and then under the license column it says 'none activate free trial' |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 15:21 |
Dear Matthew, It's all working with regard connection and 'Device ID' etc. The problem it's complaining about now is the limit due to only having a trial license (not a fully paid license). No need to do anything too drastic though: You are limited to 50 sessions and 75 students when trying STEARsoft out. On your PC in the web-interface, log in to your teacher account and follow the following instructions: 1) On the options menu on the left go to Backups, and press the OK button to save a backup of all the data you've entered. 2) Return to the main Teacher page (with your timetable) and in turn go to each of your classes. 3) In the attendance sheet for each class, click the 'Delete lessons...' link at the top (towards the right) 4) Choose a date a week or so into the future to leave you some lessons, but not too large a number. Engineer this so that all the lessons left for all your classes (all together) come to less than 50. 5) Make sure you've not got more than 75 students in your system. If you have, Go to 'Delete Class' (from the left-hand options panael back on the teacher home page), and delete enough classes to leave you with classes totalling not more than 75 students. 6) This won't have deleted the students though... Go to 'Purge old data...' (again from the left-panel) and under the 'Students not in any class' bit, click on 'Delete all students shown below'. Try synchronising again, and you should get your cut-down data in your iPhone nicely. Try it out, check the synchronising process is to your liking for incremental changes. If you decide to buy a full license, when bought, press the 'Activate full license' button in the Administrator bit of the web-interface. You can then return to your teacher login, go to the backups, restore what you've saved and sync that all across to your iPhone. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 15:26 |
Dear Brendan, I've just spotted your update reply! Looks like it was written as I was writing my other reply to you. That is good news, and sounds cool. I didn't know you got a network connection to your computer through the cable. Solved. No router required (which may not have been an option anyway...) Yours, Marcus. |
| matthew Twomey 24 July 2010 15:43 |
it worked! thanks for the help |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 24 July 2010 15:58 |
Matthew, You're welcome. It's nice when people persevere, and it's also nice to hear of success, so thanks for the feedback. I hope you find STEARsoft to be a useful tool. Yours, Marcus. |
| Brendan Jones 13 March 2011 10:42 |
Hi Marcus, When I try to sync, I getthis message :"Failed to connect to server (972). Please try again, checking your WiFiconnection and the server network address" Any ideas of how to fix this? Cheers, Brendan Jones |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 13 March 2011 15:39 |
Dear Brendan, This message is usually indication that you don't have a network connection (eg because WiFi is switched off). I don't know how you have been getting on synchronising and how you've been doing it. I've not managed to get synchronising working over a cable here. So how often have you been synchronising, and what has been your method? Yours, Marcus. |
| Brendan Jones 17 March 2011 09:50 |
Hi Marcus, I've used the USB cable to sync up to now, but now it won't work any more. I've almost cracked the wireless sync i think - but now I get this message "To synchronise with more than one server, ensure onr assigns you as primary, and the other secondary. Change this in the administrator settings" I hope this means I'm closer to success :-) - Brendan |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 17 March 2011 20:36 |
Dear Brendan, That's good news. Yes you're pretty much there. The message is a little misleading (it has been changed for whenever the next release is), but basically means you have to do a one-way synchronisation. To do this: 1) on your iPhone, go to the Synchronisation Setup screen. 2) Change the bottom setting (Sync type) to be 'iPhone to Server' or 'Server to iPhone' (this will copy all data from one to the other, overwriting what's there) 3) Touch save. 4) Synchronise. The reason you need to do this is that synchronisation has got out of step, so it can't just sync the differences. If your most up-to-date information is on your iPhone, then you'll probably want to do an 'iPhone to Server' sync - but to do this, you need to designate your teacher account on your PC as 'detached' (you do this in the Administrator area). This may already be the case, so just check this if it doesn't work. If you are actually trying to synchronise with 2 different computers, then you need to do some extra things. In this case, post another message and I can give help on that. Good luck. Yours, Marcus. |
| Brendan Jones 20 March 2011 08:34 |
Hi Marcus, Success! Thanks again for saving my bacon :) Brendan |
| Carmen Rattay 11 September 2011 17:17 |
Hey Marcus, first of all: I'm a german user of stearsoft and I'm in troble: I bought(!!) a full version in the appstore and I'm not able to synchronise with my Laptop. - My laptop is running with lan, the iphone on Wifi. - Long time there was a time-out in connection to the server. Well. so I tried again. Didn't work. - I signed, that I have to build a free account with the laptop. I did so, registered, built 3 terms of courses as a test and then wandet to synchronise as a - I hoped so - successfull test. - nothing. I remembere several answers: - time out - something with error -R (sorry, didn't copy in foto..) At least my iphone has reached the limit of 50 syncs - and none of it works?!? I'm really not amused about having spent money on a system which doesn't work. Perhaps you can reach me per mail - what do you need for a mail support? User name? Customer ID? I hope you can mannage this! I would love to have this little porgramm - as a Musician I have trouble with Lists and papers... And at least: Hope, you can understand my problems with my cute grammar-variations... mavoca. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 11 September 2011 19:47 |
Dear mavoca, Thank you for your post. And sorry to hear things are not going as easily as they should. Have you already looked at the 'Synchronising data from a PC' tutorial at: http://www.stearsoft.co.uk/tutorials/iphone/index.html There is also some written Help for this in the iPhone app. The full version of STEARsoft for your iPhone (which you have) allows you to create as many classes and students as you like (using your iPhone), and you don't need to synchronise with a PC to get that all working. The PC version is an extra which costs more and then allows you to synchronise. You are correct that you can use a free trial version for your Laptop to test it works, but the trial has a limit for synchronising, so if you've put in lots of data (which it sounds like you might have), it will put up a warning message for this. I have sent you a separate email so you can send me the photo of the error message you get. From that I should be able to help more precisely if there's a problem other than this trial limit. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 13 September 2011 22:04 |
Dear Carmen, Thank you for your email. As I said I would, here is something to help add students more quickly. If you have a list of students in Excel, copy them out of excel into an email which you send to yourself onto your iPhone. You should then be able to copy and paste this list of names into STEARsoft on your iPhone using the 'Add multiple new students' option. To find this in STEARsoft: 1) Open an attendance sheet for a class 2) Tap Edit in the top right 3) Tap 'Add/Remove student(s)...' 4) Tap 'Add multiple new students' 5) Follow the hints to paste the names in. Even if you want to put all the students in different classes, you can add them to a single class to get the names into STEARsoft, and then use the 'Add existing student' option to select the students into different classes. I'll write a separate post about synchronising. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 13 September 2011 22:20 |
Regarding synchronising and the PC trial license. There is no limit on the number of times you can synchronise, so you may have misread a message at some point. There is a time limit (but you are well within this - that is a few months). There are also limits on the number of students you can synchronise, the number of classes you can synchronise and the number of attendance sessions you can synchronise, but if you only have one or two classes and not many students you can synchronise lots and lots of times. If you wish to give this another go, I suggest you delete your user account on the PC version and start again by creating a new account. Then just add one class of say 20 students (or perhaps two classes of 10 students), and just create a few attendance sessions (perhaps 10). You should then be able to test the synchronising without hitting the limits mentioned above. There are two options to help here: 1) If you have lots of entered data you wish to save, you can use the STEAR Administrator program to stop the server. Then copy the C:/Program Files/STEARsoft/Reg/data directory somewhere safe. Then delete the contents of this data directory. Then 'start the server'. Once you have done your experiment, stop the server, copy back the data directory, start the server. 2) Once you have a new teacher account, instead of synchronising data from the computer to your iPhone, you could select the synchronise option to copy from your iPhone to the Computer. This will test the synchronising in the other direction. Be aware if you do this, once the data is on your PC it won't allow a second synchronisation if you have gone over the trial limit. Sorry - that's a lot of words. Hopefully there is some help there though. Yours, Marcus. |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 03 December 2011 16:16 |
Dear mavoca/Carmen, Following the issues you raised on this thread we looked into this further and made some changes. The recent releases (5.5.0 and 5.5.1) no longer restrict synchronisation as the previous version did. We found (as you pointed out) that there were situations that became quite confusing and frustrating and we apologise for this. Please do try the new version, and I hope it gives a better experience. If you have further feedback, it would be good to hear it. Yours, Marcus |
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