Help on syncing please
Am I dreaming or did Logos use to sync books between devices? I’m almost certain that if I started reading a book on my iPad or Android phone I could then swap either between them or to my laptop and follow on from where I left off!
This no longer happens!
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Syncing <kind of> works. FL assumes that if you have a book open in a layout on the desktop, that you want that resource to stay put in that layout. Similarly, FL assumes that if you have a book open in a tab on mobile, that you want that resource to stay put on that device.
To get syncing to work, the resource MUST not be open.
It sounds like you expect syncing to work as in my suggestion of "projects."
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Hi JT. Can’t find your project post.
However, what I expect is that if I start reading on one device I should be able to pick up where I left off on any other device.
Interestingly, as I have found this afternoon, if I start reading a book on my laptop, then switch to either my iPad or Android phone, it opens on them to exactly the same page as the laptop has even closed down on. Surely if they sync one way then they should also sync back?
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Hi JT, couldn’t find your project. However, what I expect is to be able to read a book on any of my devices and then to be able to pick up from where I left off on another device.
Not only does this seem pretty logical to me (Kindle in its simplicity even manages this) but I’m almost certain it used to work that way.
interestingly I started reading a book on my laptop this afternoon. I closed my computer down and after dinner picked up my iPaD. I found the book in the library, opened it, and hey presto it opened to where I had left off on my laptop. I checked on my Android phone and the same happened with that.
I find it hard to believe that FL only intend this feature to sync one way!
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what I expect is to be able to read a book on any of my devices and then to be able to pick up from where I left off on another device
First, let me state that I understand your desire and I desire the same thing! I'll get to that by the end of this post, I promise!
I’m almost certain it used to work that way.
Nope, never.
Kindle in its simplicity even manages this)
Logos isn't an eBook reader. It is a digital study library. This explains the discrepancy between what you want and what we have. With Kindle, users are typically reading books cover to cover. That isn't necessarily how users utilize Logos. Consider this users:
- Uses the mobile app on iPhone to read short, daily devotions from ESV.
- Uses the mobile app on iPad to repeatedly read / highlight / take notes the biblical text in the ESV for his sermon four weeks in advance.
- Uses layout 1 on the desktop app to study & write this sunday's sermon using the ESV.
- Uses layout 2 on the desktop app to study & write the small group discussion questions from the ESV.
- Uses layout 3 on the desktop app to study & write miscellaneous talks (i.e. weddings, funerals).
What I have described isn't an obscure case study. If I were preaching regularly, it would be how I would utilize Logos! I would certainly not want to lose my place on any of those devices/layouts. If Logos implemented what you request without any changes, that is what would happen. Although I desire what you do, if I could only choose ONE behavior, FL has it "right" in its current form.
couldn’t find your project.
I harp on this regularly enough, but one more time won't hurt. [:)]
Let me start with something seemingly trivial. I hate FL's use of the term "layout." A layout <should> simply refer to a pattern of tiles. An iPhone screen ≠ an iPad screen ≠ MacBook Screen ≠ iMac Screen. Each has its own form factor. How you arrange resources on your iPhone should be distinct from how you arrange them on your MacBook.
So how does FL use the term "layout?" They really mean a "project" with saved title/tab location data. A FL "layout" includes info about open resources along with the location within those resources. Unfortunately these layouts 1) necessarily include tab/tile patterns and 2) do not sync with mobile. The two fold result is that 1) you can't change the tiles/tabs on one computer without it messing up the others and 2) you can't have an automatic "always on" sync between desktop & mobile.
My suggestion is for FL to abandon their peculiar use of the term "layouts" and create a new "projects" feature which is layout agnostic. If a user wants to have always on / automatic sync, they would just need to make sure to always use the same project.
I find it hard to believe that FL only intend this feature to sync one way!
Hopefully I have explained most of your questions, but again, you CAN sync both ways between devices... but you must follow the steps I provided in my earlier post.
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Adding to Alabama, I suspect 'Bibles' illustrates cross-device syncing issues. I have 4 devices with NABRE open. Each studying a different part of the Bible. Cross-device syncing would be a disaster. Ditto on my lexicons.
I'd assume a solution would be at account level option (sync all). Resource level would be chaotic,
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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I suspect 'Bibles' illustrates cross-device syncing issues.
It does, but it applies to other resources as well. For example: I am in a small group. If we were to read through BOOK1, I might want that resource to stay put on my iPad, which is the device I use when in my small group. When I am reading through the book in advance to create the study questions, I would want my desktop app to keep its unique location data.
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Thank you JT and Denise.
What you say makes much sense and I can now see the problems that the sort of sync I am expecting would cause. I really do appreciate your comments and help.
However, if I read on my laptop it syncs the latest read position back to Android and iPad!
So, currently FL seem to have a foot in each side of the argument!
Any suggestions how to get around this? Perhaps adding a note to the book at the latest position (if I remember) when I finish reading? Then when I go to another device I can open my notes and get from there to the correct page.
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Hi JT.
I had mentioned this on another thread (not sure why?)
https://cmmunity.logos.com/forums/t/182742.aspx
I didn't realise that I had to close the book and manually sync on my devices. I had been leaving them open.
Hey-ho, you live and learn!
Thanks for all your help. You must have the patience of a saint dealing with dumbos like me!
Tony.
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