How to use more than one device with same or synchronizied data set in the cloud

[Steve S]

I have the OpenSong App on my Android tablet and I back up to NextCloud which is a FOSS Dropbox alternative.  Works great.

I have always wanted to figure out how to set things up so that my OpenSong Songs folder is automatically synced with my Cloud Storage so that I could have more than one device sync with this one cloud storage folder/s.

I remember when I first started using OpenSong there was discussion of doing something like this with DropBox but I failed when I tried to set it up.  I was confused about  where to choose to place the data on my one device and still am not completely sure what best practice is.

Is this possible?  If it is, 'd love some guidance.

Thanks

[Alistair Baty]

Hi Steve,

I use multiple devices with the same OpenSong data.

• 2 tablets for when I am actually playing.
  
• 2 computers, which I use for editing songs or creating Set lists (or printing PDF song sheets, but the App is getting so good this is becoming less and less frequent - thanks team).
• 1 phone, for preparing Set lists when traveling or in the spur of the moment.  (I used to use it as an emergency backup if my tablet dies, but my eyes are not as good as they used to be :-)
  

I use Dropbox, but it should work with any system that will sync a folder (\OpenSong) across all of your devices.

OpenSong doesn't have syncing capabilities, so it relies on your file system or other Apps for this.

The approach in general is:

1. create a backup of your data using OpenSongApp just in case (it's a zip file).
   
2. Close OpenSongApp.
   
3. Then you copy your current OpenSong folder up to NextCloud.
   
4. Figure how to get NextCloud to sync data to your tablet. Let it create the "new" OpenSong folder wherever it wants to, so long as it is writable.
   
5. If that works, you would then open OpenSongApp and change the data folder location to point to that new one NextCloud created.
   
6. After checking OpenSongApp works ok and has the data, you can delete the  "old" OpenSong folder.

That is the approach in general and should work for any cloud storage system. (I use the 3rd party DropSync app and defined by Gareth, but a premium subscription on DropBox should also work.)

If you have specific questions give us a shout.

Alright

[Steve S]

Thanks

 

Question:"Then you copy your current OpenSong folder up to NextCloud."

The whole OpenSong folder with all of it's subfolders?  Ie: Songs,Sets Variations, Settings, etc?

[Gareth Evans]

Yes.  That way your sets, highlighter notes, etc get synchronised not just your songs.  Both the nextcloud app and OpenSong app should point to the same OpenSong/ root folder.

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[Steve S]

Thanks for the help.

I've got it working now - so glad.

Just some notes about NextCloud particulars in case someone else is looking for Info or I forget and need to find notes.

In setting in the NextCloud Android app you are allowed to choose amongst a few places for your data storage folder. 

The one that worked for me is the one with /media/ in the path.  this is the first option on my installation.

I found that the other 2 options were not accessible to both NextCloud and OpenSong, so did not work.

Once I told Nextcloud to use that location it moved all my Synched NextCloud files there including my OpenSong root folder.

Opensong could see that folder so I could point it there and voila!

So happy to use my other devices to manage and edit my songs etc.

Now I just need to hop on SourceForge and see if I can figure out a few thi9ngs in the Linux Version of Opensong  - https://sourceforge.net/projects/opensong/files/OpenSong/V3.4.8%20Beta/.

It is accessing the NextCloud synced files but seems a bit unpolished and does some wierd thaing like - some song lyric sheets allow scrolling to the bottom and some don't.  Weird.

[Steve S]

Well darn.  I am suddenly not able to upload a backup to NextCloud now.

OpenSong goes thru the process and creates the Backup file as usual, asks me where I want to put it and shows me NextCloud as one of my choices in the Share window,, as usual but when I hit the Upload button I get an error message that is not helpful at all.  I have tried many times to several different pre-existing and new folders on NextCloud with the same result each time.  click Export in OpenSong watch all the files being processed, Share window opens get error message - "This file cannot be uploaded - Unknown error - Back

[Steve S]

I don't see a way to edit my last so I will add on here.  Had V5 installed on my phone and did a backup to a NextCloud Subfolder - OpenSong Backups/Phone and it happily did it.  Then went to the play store and updated to V6.  Tried to do a Backup and got the error message as above.  Thought It might be cuz Backups are named with just the date and not the time and I already had one with that name so I created another sub folder  OpenSong Backups/Phone/Joe  - no change.  Still same error message - "This file cannot be uploaded - Unknown error - Back

[Gareth Evans]

The backups are virtually identical in both versions, the only difference is that v6 will include a database file for non-opensong files (e.g. PDF files).  Because the backup is actually just a zip file (with a different file extension), this shouldn't cause any issues.  Once you get to the 'choose location/method' of sharing the backup, this actually uses your built in Android file picker, rather than OpenSongApp's.  I will check that it correctly gives permission to the FilePicker to share the file - Android has made a lot of permission changes for files and folders and what apps can and can't share.

Just checking that as your original post, the synchronisation doesn't require sharing a backup file each time - if you have synchronised the upload and download of the /OpenSong/ folder using your NextCloud app and that OpenSongApp's storage location is set to the same /OpenSong/ folder, that should be all that is required.  The backup file created in the OpenSong/Backups/ folder should automatically be synchronised.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/opensongapp/fe48fbe9-d41f-4a8f-9697-f0eef91ceeaen%40googlegroups.com.

[Steve S]

I agree with your logic

Having one or more different files and databases in the OSB?Zip file should make no difference at all.

For the heck of it I did another backup and shared to Google Drive instead of NextCloud and it worked fine.

I can't think of any reason why Nextcloud would happily accept files shared from V5 and it used to tak my Backups from V6.

So, I messed about a bit this morning trying different things.

I created a different location for Backups at  NextCloud/OpenSong Backups   instead of NextCloud /OpenSong/Backups .  I was thinking maybe my Backup folder should not be in the main OpenSong folder and realized that there is no need for the Backup Folder to be synchronized locally on all my devices since it might be a waste of storage space.Sharing the Backup files failed with same message no matter where in NextCloud I tried to share it to.

Wondering - when the Backup file is ready to share -  has it already been created locally?  Is it then uploaded and then deleted? or?

I hope that your idea about checking  "that it correctly gives permission to the FilePicker to share the file - Android has made a lot of permission changes for files and folders and what apps can and can't share." turns out to be the issue.

It seems like it must be something fussy like that.

Thanks

[Steve S]

Experimented

I uninstalled 6 and installed 5, and successfully saved a backup to Nextcloud.

So, no question, there is some difference between the versions.

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Steve,

Unfortunately, it isn't the app (v6).  I've created a NextCloud account and tested creating multiple backups, etc. and have been able to share the file via the NextCloud app link all on v6.  I checked the permissions and they are handled correctly.  They also allow upload to Google Drive, Dropbox, email, etc.  I did experience an error once (similar to the one you described), but it was a server error - shown in the 'uploads' section of the app.  I clicked on retry and it worked the second time.  It seems like an error via the NextCloud server.  I chose the 'GoodCloud' provider on the free plan.  I suspect that this will have restrictions on connection speed and reliability in favour of paid accounts.

When you create a backup, it gets stored in your OpenSong/Backups folder and is then attached to the method you choose from the action picker.  The file is not deleted from your device.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/opensongapp/c10cb6b7-26c0-4658-bce3-546eb36ee6dfn%40googlegroups.com.

[Steve S]

Thanks for looking at this Gareth. 

At first it seemed to me that it was connected to the original topic but now realize it's really not.

And even though I am getting these error messages when trying share the backup file to NextCloud I realized that I really do not want to put them on the shared/synchronized NextCloud/OpenSong/ Folder cuz I really don't want them to be part of what is synced.

So I now have the NextCloud/OpenSong/ folder synced and a separate NextCloud/OpenSong Backups/ folder that is not synced. And If I am unable to share/Upload to NextCloud it is no big problem to just store my OpenSong backups to DropBox or Google Drive or . . .

Thanks for the help.  I hope that you are getting my feedback on V6 of the App and it is helpful to you.  Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.