Sync setting

Gospel Library version 3.4.1
My Settings page shows the last sync to be Last month, but I cannot find a place to force a sync or to set it to sync all the time. If I click on my login name it just brings up the options to Sign Out or Cancel.
Any suggestions?

-TomZ

Same thing happened to me... any solutions?

Hi,
As a workaround I closed my session and loged right after and the sync process starts automatically, but it takes hours to sync?! I don't understand why they took off the sync button like in the 2.5.
Sorry for my english... I'm not native.

Nothing is syncing for me. I edit on the website, my iPhone, and iPad but nothing is syncing to any of the other devices. I've tried to log out and back in, but when I do that it never seems to stop syncing. I've also deleted the app and reinstalled it on the iPhone, but that doesn't seem to do anything either.

I'm having the same issue on my iPad with iOS 7.1. I've logged out and back in and the message just stays syncing. Please fix this, give a manual sync option, or otherwise help.

Just to add another voice, the same thing is happening to me as well. A fix would be greatly appreciated, thanks for all the efforts.

Yup. I'm having the same problem. It is taking hours to sync on my iphone. My iPad does it just fine though...weird. Love a solution

I having the same problem. LDS Library is no longer syncing. When I log out and log back in, it says "syncing" and just stays in that mode in perpetuity. The only way I can get it to stop is to reboot my iPhone. That's no solution at all!

Perhaps its time for prayer and fasting... We know it works!

Just checking back for any updates or news regarding this problem. Has anyone been able to successfully find a workaround or solution?

I had considered removing the app and reinstalling it, but dustingreen says he already tried that, and it didn't work either. Is there a smilie icon for "frustrated"?

Great thread going here!

This is just a guess, but it may be a starting point for a solution. Is it possible that the sync data on the iPhone may have become corrupted? That would explain why the app tries to sync, but just hangs and shows that it is syncing indefinitely. If so, then we could work to find a way to delete it and download it fresh. What other circumstances could have caused this challenge, and how do we rectify it?

It would seem to me that it's likely we aren't the first people to encounter this problem, but I haven't been able to find any other web pages that deals with this one.

It may be a test of everyone's memories now, but does anyone else remember any other events or changes related to the app or iPhone that occurred about the same time? This is important because this problem surfaced for all of us at the same time. That fact hints at both a cause and a possible solution. My memory may be a bit foggy, but I seem to recall that there was either an app update or even an Apple IOS update that occurred about the time this problem surfaced for all of us. Does anyone else remember what other related event may have triggered this bug?

I have the same problem with syncing as others with an iPod 5th generation. My iPod has not been able to sync for about a month. I have tried logging out and then logging back in. The sync starts but I terminated it after two hours. I have also deleted the app and re-installed the app. Same problem the sync starts and after a couple of hours I terminate it. Maybe I should let the sync continue to see if it ever completes.

I have had the same issue with the sync taking forever and really not completing successfully. I had to remove and reinstall the app in order to get everything working again. I did some experimenting and found that this happens consistently for me when I update or create a bookmark that doesn't have a specific location.

For example, I finished the Book of Mormon recently and book marked the title page to start over. Rather than mark the first paragraph as it would on a priesthood lesson or something similar, it appeared to mark the entire page. After that I had sync issues and that bookmark would not sync.

This has also happened to me when trying to book mark a conference talk in the latest conference. Again the bookmark does not mark the first paragraph but appears to mark the entire talk and that one won't update after that. I don't know if this helps or not, but this is what I have found.

twsettle, that may perhaps be the break-through we've been looking for!

I've done the same thing, attempting to create a bookmark without it being tied to a specific location, verse, or paragraph. It's been too long ago for me to remember if the sync problem occurred immediately thereafter, but I have done the same thing.

I'm having the many of the same issues with the syncing with my iPad. The settings show that it hasn't synced since "last month," but unlike others in this thread, I see no indication that it's even trying to sync when I log out and start the app again. (It's not even asking for a login after a logout and restart. It just takes me right back to the page I was on when I logged off.)
I deleted the few bookmarks I had in the event the problem was caused by something I had in there as suggested in another reply, but to no avail. I guess tomorrow I'll delete the app and then reinstall with the slim hope that it fixes something. But I'm not holding my breath.

A few minutes ago, I received notice of the latest IOS update from Apple. I updated the IOS and then opened the LDS Library app. Still no synchronization!

Syncing works fine on my android phone, but I prefer to study on my iPad. But since sync is broken on my ipad once again, it's useless. I guess it's time to dump the iPad and get an android tablet. I don't have time to reinstall gospel library every other month on the iPad when sync breaks... I'm losing precious study time over this.

We appear to be largely on our own, here. Does anyone have any ideas about how we can localize this problem and fix it ourselves? Or does anyone know if the Church tech team is already working on it?

stevebenard wrote:We appear to be largely on our own, here. Does anyone have any ideas about how we can localize this problem and fix it ourselves? Or does anyone know if the Church tech team is already working on it?

You can try sending feedback through Gospel Library, under Settings > Send Feedback, if you haven't already.

I recently got an update for the Gospel Library that required me to re-download the library. I don't know if it was a library update or an application update, but I had to download everything again. Since then, I cannot replicate the problem that I described above regarding bookmarking the new versions of conference and the title page of the Book of Mormon. They all bookmark fine now, and I continue to sync. The bookmarks now just mark the paragraph.

Just something I've noticed (and maybe its already been discussed) but the syncing problem is between the iPad and the iPhone. I can mark something on the iPhone and it syncs to notes on the LDS site; it is the same for the iPad. The problem is that the iPhone and iPad are not talking to each other.

dustingreen wrote:Just something I've noticed (and maybe its already been discussed) but the syncing problem is between the iPad and the iPhone. I can mark something on the iPhone and it syncs to notes on the LDS site; it is the same for the iPad. The problem is that the iPhone and iPad are not talking to each other.

The iPhone and iPad are not supposed to be talking to each other. They both communicate with LDS.org. I suppose that could be considered to be indirect communication with each other, but it's certainly not direct.

But theoretically that should work. If you make a change to your notes on your iPhone, then those changes should go to LDS.org; when your iPad next syncs with the LDS.org servers, it should get that change as well.

Note that the first sync should happen quite quickly, since in this scenario you made the change on your iPhone and so the iPhone knows it needs to communicate changes to LDS.org. But the iPad has no idea that something changed on LDS.org until it actually syncs. I don't know how often it checks with LDS.org for changes, but you can certainly force the iPad to sync its annotations with LDS.org.

I just tested this on Android, and it worked as expected. I made a change to an annotation on my Android phone, and it showed up on my Android tablet.

Ya, I verified that it works between my wife's iPhone and her nook. It works seamlessly. Just not between the iPhone and iPad like it used to.

And just a quick follow up/clarification . . . I can annotate on both my iPhone and iPad and it will automatically show on the web (LDS.org); however, if I annotate on the web, it doesn't send anything to my iPhone or iPad. It seems like it is a one way sync. All annotations on devices go to the web but nothing goes from the web to the devices.

dustingreen wrote:And just a quick follow up/clarification . . . I can annotate on both my iPhone and iPad and it will automatically show on the web (LDS.org); however, if I annotate on the web, it doesn't send anything to my iPhone or iPad. It seems like it is a one way sync. All annotations on devices go to the web but nothing goes from the web to the devices.

Are you sure of that, or is it just a lot slower than you expect? As I noted, syncing changes made on a device to LDS.org goes very quickly because the device pushes the changes to LDS.org right away. But for the device to get changes made on LDS.org (or on another device), a device will have to pull those changes, which is not going to happen extremely frequently.

However, I just did a test. I made an annotation on scriptures.lds.org, and then I opened up Gospel Library on my Android phone 10 seconds later. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my new annotation was already there. I'm not sure what the trigger was (was the GL app not already running, and it synced when it started up, perhaps?), but it was very quick. I know you use iOS devices, but I would think that the sync would be quite similar on those devices.

Thanks, aebrown, for your help! I'm grateful that one of the admins is here to help us. That's a relief to me because I feel frustrated. I have literally prayed that the Lord would help the tech people to find the source of this problem and help us to fix it. I have the faith that eventually, the problem will be identified and fixed. I just hope it's sooner, rather than later.

My ios device is not sincing at all. Zero. Zilch. Never! It hasn't sinced for several weeks now. I think that was what this thread was about. That's what most of the posts appear to be discussing.

In the "settings" area, it no longer tells me the date of the last sync. It used to, but hasn't for a very long time. The section of the "settings" where it used to show the last sync date is now blank. It still shows that I'm signed in. It simply is no longer syncing - ever!

None of the notes I've put on LDS.org in the past several weeks have ever showed up on my iPhone. I wish they would, because I would like to be able to carry them with me. I typed notes in Alma Chapter 6 on LDS.org weeks ago, but they still aren't showing up on my iPhone. I'm now studying Alma Chapter 21 and putting notes for that chapter on LDS.org. My iPhone hasn't synced since Alma Chapter 5.

I've signed out and signed back in repeatedly, and it still doesn't sync. When I attempt to force it to sync, it shows the rotating icon that indicates that it's syncing, and it just shows that icon for hours and hours, but it never completes. It never actually syncs. It just hangs, and the only way I can stop it, is by rebooting my iPhone.

This seems to be a problem that only exists with Apple products, so discussing an Android is irrelevant.

stevebenard wrote:My ios device is not sincing at all. Zero. Zilch. Never! It hasn't sinced for several weeks now. I think that was what this thread was about. That's what most of the posts appear to be discussing.
...
I've signed out and signed back in repeatedly, and it still doesn't sync. When I attempt to force it to sync, it shows the rotating icon that indicates that it's syncing, and it just shows that icon for hours and hours, but it never completes. It never actually syncs. It just hangs, and the only way I can stop it, is by rebooting my iPhone.

You mentioned in this post that you had never tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Yes, someone else mentioned that he had tried that and it made no difference, but it still seems to me that it is worth a try. There have been other cases where a reinstall has corrected a problem.

But other than that, I don't have any more ideas. I don't even own an iOS device, so I'm not in a position to help. Perhaps some others will chime in....

stevebenard wrote:This seems to be a problem that only exists with Apple products, so discussing an Android is irrelevant.

In the beginning it's helpful to discuss how Android works because it can help narrow down whether the problem is in the specific mobile application, or in the web services that all the mobile platforms call. But once you've determined that Android works correctly and iOS doesn't, then I would agree that you need to look at the specific platform having the problem.

aebrown wrote:I don't even own an iOS device, so I'm not in a position to help.

Same here. All I can add is to make sure you have the most recent version of the app. The API may not support the older ones.

That becomes an issue because the most recent version requires a OS that isn't available to older Apple devices.

I have Gospel Library version 3.4.4. That's the most recent version listed on LDS.org. It appears to update the app readily, but it just doesn't synchronize my personalizations after updating. All other features of the app seem to be working fine. In fact, the app itself has updated since this problem began, but this one feature still continues to fail.

I've had my device less than six months. It also has the latest Apple IOS update, which is version 7.1.2. My device indicates that the IOS is up to date with the latest version. All my other apps are working fine and they all continue to update regularly, including Gospel Library. This is the only app that has any difficulties, and the problem isn't with the app itself, it's only with the synchronization feature.

In uninstalling and reinstalling the app, there is a real risk. I would lose all my bookmarks and personalizations, including notes, since this problem arose. So if someone else says that it made no difference, it doesn't make logical sense to take that risk of losing all that work and effort, when someone else's experience has already indicated that it was to no avail.

Wouldn't it make more sense to work to localize the problem and rectify it so that all the app's functions work according to design, rather than recommend a path that others have tried, that failed to rectify the problem, and that would cause a loss of important personal data?

I'm not trying to be a gadfly here, but that just seems to be the logical course to rectify the problem, especially since there is a group of us that are experiencing the same malady that initiated itself almost simultaneously for all of us.

I just searched the Wiki for the search term "site:tech.lds.org/wiki". That yielded no useful results either. Neither did the search term "iphone won't synchronize". (Sigh!)

Seriously, folks, perhaps it's time to really use the tool of prayer to try to find the answer to this dilemma. The Lord knows what the problem is, and how to fix it. Perhaps we should be asking Him to help us! Some earnest prayer, with a dose of faith, has brought miracles greater than this one in times past.

You may want to re-read Post #12. He did solve the problem and learned how to avoid it.

When I read post #19, at first, it seemed to suggest the same thing -- that the recent download of the updated app fixed the problem. But when I downloaded the new version of the app, the problem has continued. So the solution that seemed to work for that person, did nothing to solve the same problem on my iphone. But it could also be that their problem was solved with the earlier uninstall/reinstall they mentioned.

Comment #4 indicated that uninstalling and reinstalling the app didn't make any difference. So we have an impasse then.

I've sent a message asking for a clarification from both of them. Hopefully, this may lead us to the final solution in the next few days.

It's a shame to lose all my personalizations over the past two months needlessly. But even if I save the app and all data to my hard drive in an iCloud backup, the new install would have a later date stamp and would therefore delete all my updates in the past several weeks. I'm still hoping for a solution that doesn't involve data loss.

stevebenard asked me to clarify a little on what happened to me and where I am with sync.

Originally I was able to readily duplicate the issue of the sync not working by marking something that appeared to mark the whole item rather than just the first paragraph. For example, if I would book mark a conference talk, the highlight that you see when you bookmark something would highlight the entire talk rather than just the first paragraph. The other example that I gave on this was the title page of the Book of Mormon. Again, when I did the bookmark on the title page, the entire page was highlighted rather than the first paragraph.

Anytime I did this on my iPhone or my iPad, that device would no longer sync. It would say that it was a syncing but it never would. I would log out of the sync and log back in to try and force it and the little dialog would pop up telling me it was syncing, but it would never go away or sync. I left it all night once and it never synced. If I uninstalled the application and reinstalled it, then I could get the sync to happen again, but it was, of course, without the bookmark that I had created that caused it to stop. If I recreated the conference talk or title page bookmark again, then the sync would stop again until I uninstalled and reinstalled.

Somewhat recently, I don't know if the app was upgraded or not, but I know that something happened that I had to re-download all content. After that happened, the issue with the way the bookmarking worked on those previous places was resolved. It would now allow me to book mark a conference talk and would only highlight the first paragraph. The same occurred on the title page of the Book of Mormon. After this happened I have no longer been able to duplicate the sync issue on my devices.

I am speculating now, but I believe that I can't duplicate the sync issue now because I cannot duplicate the issue that caused my sync problems in the first place.

I hope this information is helpful. I don't know if it will prevent the need to uninstall and reinstall, but since I also use only he electronic versions to study, I hope it does for others that have had the problem for a while and would lose more than I lost.

twsettle wrote:If I uninstalled the application and reinstalled it, then I could get the sync to happen again, but it was, of course, without the bookmark that I had created that caused it to stop. If I recreated the conference talk or title page bookmark again, then the sync would stop again until I uninstalled and reinstalled.

Did you ever delete that bookmark, and did it start syncing after that? Or was it a case of once messed up, it was always messed up?

I am not 100% sure I remember correctly but I believe that even if I deleted the bookmark the sync wouldn't start working again. I never let it go long before removing and reinstalling. Patience is unfortunately not one of my virtues. Sorry I am not more help on that one.

Everything seems to be syncing now! I deleted the app on both my iPhone and iPad and reinstalled and everything is syncing both ways - from my devices to the website and from the website to my devices. I have deleted and reinstalled the app before and didn't get the same result; this time it worked; however, I did it just a little different this time. This time I deleted the app from both my iPhone and iPad at the same time and then reinstalled both of them. In previous times, I deleted one at a time and then reinstalled prior to deleting and reinstalling to the other device. I don't know if it was because of this that it worked, but nevertheless it is working!

P.S. sorry stevebenard for the delay - I replied to the private message instead of the forum.

This sounds like it may be a final solution then. I'll copy down all my bookmarks (there are many) and attempt deleting and reinstalling the app. I'm crossing my fingers...
I'll let you all know what the results are.

It worked! Great! I'm a happy guy!

But try to figure this out! I just went onto the LDS.org website and logged in. I went to check a bookmark, and ALL of the bookmarks I've created, right up until yesterday, were there. ALL of them! How could that be when my bookmarks and notes hadn't been synchronizing for the past two months! Could that be a miracle? At the very least, it's a tender mercy!

Thank the Lord that we live in a day of miracles and answered prayers!

I'm having the same problem... sort of. My iPhone syncs up with my online account, but my iPad only goes one way. If I take notes on my iPad, those will sync up to my online account, but If I take notes online, it does not sync up to my iPad. Is there a setting I'm missing or is this part of the same problem that others are having?

Sounds like the exact same problem I was having. Just uninstall and then re-install on your iPad. This should fix it.

My IPad crashed with installation of 8. When I reset my IPad, everything on my device was restored, but my scripture annotations are all erased.

Have you logged in to Gospel Library with your LDS Account to sync annotations?

aebrown wrote:

dustingreen wrote:Just something I've noticed (and maybe its already been discussed) but the syncing problem is between the iPad and the iPhone. I can mark something on the iPhone and it syncs to notes on the LDS site; it is the same for the iPad. The problem is that the iPhone and iPad are not talking to each other.

The iPhone and iPad are not supposed to be talking to each other. They both communicate with LDS.org. I suppose that could be considered to be indirect communication with each other, but it's certainly not direct.

But theoretically that should work. If you make a change to your notes on your iPhone, then those changes should go to LDS.org; when your iPad next syncs with the LDS.org servers, it should get that change as well.

Note that the first sync should happen quite quickly, since in this scenario you made the change on your iPhone and so the iPhone knows it needs to communicate changes to LDS.org. But the iPad has no idea that something changed on LDS.org until it actually syncs. I don't know how often it checks with LDS.org for changes, but you can certainly force the iPad to sync its annotations with LDS.org.

I just tested this on Android, and it worked as expected. I made a change to an annotation on my Android phone, and it showed up on my Android tablet.

My android tablet acts like it syncs but then says" last sync never. My annotations from the tablet don't appear on my phone.
Tablet its dying (not as in needing recharged) soon gonna lose everything.

randall.dale.hopkins wrote:My android tablet acts like it syncs but then says" last sync never. My annotations from the tablet don't appear on my phone.
Tablet its dying (not as in needing recharged) soon gonna lose everything.

What version of Android is your tablet running? Older versions of Android (earlier than Android 4.4) are no longer able to sync because of security updates on the Church servers.