Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Fast cross iOS device backup

Dropbox is depressingly slow for backup of a nice large collection.

My test collection is only 250 coins with two photos on most but not all. It takes me 20 minutes to backup the first time. It’s annoying. I apologize. If the internet is even moderately flaky Dropbox’s backend web-servers are what we call in the commercial software business, dog-shit. I have personally fixed two of their code defects. Apple’s iCloud is even worse at the coding API level. It’s like they are hiring numb-skulls to write code using the million monkey’s in a room can create software theory. 

The good news is that once you get all of those photos up to the Cloud, you are then going to have to pay Dropbox if you exceed 2GB. 

It’s a damn racket.

You can short-circuit the pay-wall Pirates by transferring your collection data manually between devices using your Mac. (PC with iTunes should work too).

Instructions: 

Manual Backup:

  1. Connect your device to your Computer running iTunes
  2. Open iTunes and select your device in the DEVICES section on the left side.
  3. Across the top, select the Apps tab, and scroll down until you see the File Sharingsection.
  4. Under the File Sharing section, select our App (us coin, gold collector, or cent collector).
  5. Notice in the right-hand-side, a list fills with all files the app uses.
  6. Select all these files, click "Save to..."
  7. Select a folder on your computer and save the files.


Manual Restore:

  1. Repeat steps 1-3
  2. Under the File Sharing section, select the App you want to restore the collection to.
  3. In the right side, click "Add..."
  4. Find the folder where you saved files from step #6 above.
  5. Respond Yes to prompt to replace existing files.
  6. Sync your device, this might take awhile. go get a beer.