Synchronization: How is it working?

Have you installed the beta on more than one machine? If so, have you noticed synchronization? If both machines use the same user account, and are connected to the Internet, you should find favorites, shortcuts, preferences, notes, documents, etc. all sync'ed between the systems.

I'd love to hear your feedback on how it is (or isn't) working.

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Comments

DominicM

Bob, I know this is a beta, but as I said in another thread the sync concerns me, I trust you guys, but would want to sync stuff, but NOT if it gets copied physically to a server anywhere as I have no control on the deletion, or security of the server, some of my notes may be deemed "sensitive" and wouldn't/cant risk even potential of them being copied outside my systems

is this sync automatic? do we have any control? can we make individual notes/docs private so they dont get copied etc..

Am just re-installing v4 on my netbook.. and am concerned...

I hope some simple form of USB/local sync will be incorporated

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7450#Comment_7450

You can turn sync off, but we don't have plans to support it via USB or any other mechanism.

Moving licenses, notes, settings, etc. between machines is one of the most common issues our support department deals with. And we see a future in which fewer people are willing to install an application on their system. (Or, they are willing, but they want access to the same data from their mobile phone, a web browser, a secondary machine that they don't want to install on, etc.) So we're designing Logos 4 to be "always-synched" in the default configuration.

People are using the Internet for banking, email, etc. It's our thought that most Bible study notes/settings/preferences/etc. don't need higher levels of security than you'd expect for the other Internet services you use. In the rare cases where you do need more security/no-risk-at-all, it would be better to keep that data outside Logos.

I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts on this, though...

DominicM

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7455#Comment_7455

thanks, but am I interpreting correctly that its either an all or nothing deal, I understand the syncing of settings/licences/filters etc, and think thats not only good but essential, and am all for that..

sadly when it comes to MY Data I would like to be in control of which items to sync/copy (or not).. default of ALL is acceptable, if I can deselect individual items

Alex Scott

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7455#Comment_7455

Just so I understand this: If I'm working at home on Logos and making a lot of notes or changes etc., if I am away and open my laptop and synch, it will show on my laptop everything I've been doing at home? Sounds good to me if that's the case.

J.R. Miller

Hmmm... I only have access to one computer right now. Is Logos providing spare computers for beta testing? LOL. Seriously though, that is cool. I will have to find a way to try it out.

Jacob Hantla

I have just installed Logos on a 2nd computer and did find my reading plan to have copied across perfectly. I really like this feature, Bob.

As with lots of others, I use Libronix/Logos (what do we called it now?) on both my desktop and my small laptop. The notes, highlights, and organization features are the result of literally thousands of hours of "work" and it was super important for me to keep that all synced. In version 3 sync.live.com met that requirement (but I would need to make sure to shut down on the home version before I left (and make sure my wife wasn't on it) before I launched remotely or multiple files would be created. It was a pain but very worthwhile for the result of having all of my study notes, quotes, and annotations in one place.

In my mind the one-central-location for all my library is the primary draw of Logos. It is digital library system and that is what keeps me purchasing my books in Logos and importing PBBs (i hope this is still do-able, but with the ability to annotate). The ability to access all that work on the web and between computers is a huge step forward. Thank you.

That all being said, most of your users do have thousands upon thousands of hours of "work" reflected in annotations and visual markups; it would be unthinkable to abandon all of that data by not doing what needs to be done to import that data into version 4 and keep it stranded in v3.

Thank you for making the steps necessary to free our data from our computer and take advantage of the interconnectedness now available to many via the internet.

J.R. Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7465#Comment_7465

Since you asked Bob, I have to agree with Jacob. I personally never invested any time into the markup or notes features. I do have a few note files, but they reflected an early research phase and are of no lasting value to me.
.

HOWEVER, I think there are probably quite a few users like Jacob who did rely on Logos and entrusted you with their notes and Bible study. IMHO, to tell them they cannot upgrade without losing their work is a violation of trust. Again, I have no personal stake, but feel for the guys and gals who do. I cannot imagine MS Word putting out their newest software and saying, "we changed our file format so you will not be able to import your old Word documents... or if you can, you will lose all your formatting and layout will be reduced to plain text." That does not seem thinkable, and I have a feeling many Logos users who put in the work, invested in Logos, will feel much the same..
.

Again, that is just my opinion as an observer to this specific issue.

Bohuslav Wojnar

The idea of keeping both computers synced sounds great to me. Does it mean they don't need to be both on-line? Does it goes through your server (is saved there) and synced when any comp connects? That would be great. I know however some guys will be worried for their data to be "somewhere else". I think it is good there will be option to switch it off in case somebody would prefer that.

Does it mean also we will see our iPhone etc. to be included in synchronization with our "big" Logos? That would be just wonderful.Thank you Bob for a great work.

P.S. I hope I will be able to install finally my Logos 4 Beta and try all those great features. So far it still crashes at the moment of Indexer starting to work after install.

Andrew Nugteren

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7477#Comment_7477

Great idea, Bob. I'm with Jacob on this one as well.

Frank Sauer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7488#Comment_7488

I think this can be an outstanding "option", not a permanent structure of the program. I would love the "option" to sync based upon user defined criteria. Let the user decide if notes, layouts, etc are synced or not synced by check box option. Also would prefer the sync/no sync option.

The main reason for this opinion is if I have layout1 on my laptop set for study and a family member happens to look something up and accidentally changes the layout, do I lose all my work? If so, syncing layout, options, etc where others can make changes is not the best option IMHO.

Damian McGrath

Bob,

would it be possible to have a more explicit list of what the program is trying to sync. For example, if it tries to sync layouts, I will inevitably never use this feature as I have the program installed on a notebook with a 19" external monitor and on a netbook with a 10" monitor. I do not want the layouts from one computer to override the layouts from the other.

While the synchronisation is occurring, it would be helpful to know what is being synchronised. "Synchronisation in progress" is not terribly helpful. It would be better for the popup to read, "Synchronisation of notes in progress" then "synchronisation of favorites" in progress.

I would like a better way to turn this on and off than only having the option of remembering a "command bar". A menu item, an option i system settings, etc.

As it stands, it's been running for a while and nothing seems to be happening. ....

I'll get back to you if it does do something.

Damian McGrath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7583#Comment_7583

Gave up after an hour of nothing seeming to change.

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7616#Comment_7616

What does that mean -- does it say it's still trying to sync, when you hover over the two arrows on the toolbar?

Do you have a special firewall or Internet filtering?

Damian McGrath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7642#Comment_7642

Bob,

It means that for an hour, both programs were running with the sync arrow spinning around and around. When I hovered over them it said that it was synching. But, there appeared to be no change at all to either program. I was particularly checking my netbook, on which I have not customised anything, to see if something different would appear. Nothing.

Damian McGrath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7642#Comment_7642

Forgot to say - nothing special of which I'm aware with firewall. There is one there, but I wasn't asked to permit your program to breach it - maybe there's something I have to play with under the hood.

Darryl Burling

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7648#Comment_7648

This is cool. I'm about to add my third computer to the trail.

However, it does raise the question of licensing. When we purchase a license, how many computers do we have the rights to install the software on? Or do you not care and prefer to lock it down at the account level? There are pro's and cons each way, but it would be useful to clarify this.

Like many others, I use Logos in a couple of places (a mobile and not so mobile location), so automatic syncronisation is useful.

There are options for how to sync without breaking privacy considerations. You could have an optional peer to peer sync which only works when both computers are online.

Finally, please don't strand users regards note formats. I have several years worth of notes and don't fancy copying and pasting them all. Surely an import option would be easy given the old format is simply xml.

Simon’s Brother

I'd love to hear your feedback on how it is (or isn't) working.

I only own one machine so sync is not a big feature for me, other than sync licenses. At this stage it does not appear to work. It just sits with the icon spinning around saying waiting to sync. I am using Zone Alarm 8.0298.000 with the following program control settings:

For the time being I have set sync off but would like to resolve as to why it doesn't appear to be working so that licenses can be sync'ed. Ideally I would like to contorl what documents are sync'ed rather than having a blanket all or nothing approach.

Robert Pavich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7772#Comment_7772

bob,

As one who does a lot of purchasing, banking and other data sensitive info on the web, I'm of the opinion that the syncing thing is welcome!

I've transferred my notes and things manually and it was a kludge...

I've also lost books because something happened and I had a liscense but no book and it wasn't until I checked what's supposed to be there that I realized that I was missing it! so this should help that situation.

Jacob Hantla

Have you installed the beta on more than one machine? If so, have you noticed synchronization? If both machines use the same user account, and are connected to the Internet, you should find favorites, shortcuts, preferences, notes, documents, etc. all sync'ed between the systems.

I'd love to hear your feedback on how it is (or isn't) working.

Working well for me so far. Any ideas what would happen if we have Logos running simulteanously on both machines and are working on the same item (this is against license rules though, right?)? I haven't tried it.

Darryl Burling

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7973#Comment_7973

I'm not sure that Synchronization is working for me. I have two computers running but no files are syncing.

The sync icon says "items are waiting to synchronize", then appears to be synchronising but nothing appears in my notes from the other computer.

Can you give us more detail on how this feature works?

davidphillips

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7973#Comment_7973

Synchronization worked great! Layouts, shortcuts, Collections, and note files are all syncing!

Dave

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/7983#Comment_7983

I'm not sure that Synchronization is working for me. I have two computers running but no files are syncing.

The sync icon says "items are waiting to synchronize......

I only have one computer but was experiencing same thing as you Darryl so I am at a point if I don't know whether or not it is working or not or there is a firewall setting I need to change or something else is going on as synch licenses is something I would still like to see happen but for now I have turned it off as it did not know what impact it was having on performance...I might give it another whirl later now that indexing has finished to see if that was the cause of it waiting to synch.