I mainly use RM8 on my pc, but have just acquired a laptop for mobile use. My files are stored on my pc in a dropbox file.
What’s the best way to use my laptop with that file? If I add information on the laptop will it update the dropbox file so that when I open RM8 on the pc everything will be current?
I tried a little test by adding a bogus wife to my son on the laptop, then closed the program and went to the pc. The bogus wife wasn’t there. Do I have something not hooked up correctly?
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Nevermind - it did work, I downloaded the folder to the laptop and therefore it created two separate folders in my dropbox account. I opened the file in the original folder and the change wasn’t there. Once I opened it in the 2nd folder it opened fine. Now I just have to figure out how to have just one folder instead of 2.
After updating your tree on the PC you will need to SAVE the file. IT is best to do this by exiting the program. You must then wait for the file to synchronise up to the Dropbox cloud, check the icon to see that it is synchronized. Then open RM on your laptop and open the file from Dropbox and it will have the new information in it.
The only caveat is that you MUST only have the file open in one location at a time, otherwise you will run into problems. Do the same when you are closing RM on your laptop to synchronise the file back to the Dropbox cloud.
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I keep my RM8 data file on Dropbox as well. It has worked well for me but when I first tried RM8 I got an access violation error that I suspect was due to the Dropbox synching. That was with version 8.0.0. I haven’t seen that error with version 8.0.1 but sometimes I will pause synching in Dropbox while I’m working in RM8 and then resume synching just before I exit the program.
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First off, best way is “one at a time”. So be sure your RM is closed on one before you open it on the other. You can totally hose your database otherwise. Depending on what you’re using you’ll likely need to pause the sync process while you’re using RM on THAT computer. Databases aren’t meant to be synced, and that’s another way you could easily hose your database. I personally haven’t tried with DropBox, but I pretty much daily use multiple Mac computers using iCloud and regularly move that to my Windows machine using OneDrive.
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If you’re on a Mac you can work in the same way using iCloud, which is where I keep my main backups
The position of Tech Support is that a working database file should not be in an actively synced folder because RM changes the file on the fly causing cloud-sync to chase them all as they are being made, resulting in elevated risk of confusion, collision and corruption.
The only exception I would make (but Support does not) is that OneDrive is more aware than the others of #SQLite database files and automatically pauses the syncing of one when it is registered with an open application. You can observe the status of a RM database file in OneDrive on Windows 10 to confirm my observation. I do not know whether you can on Macs.
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I’m very successful using iCloud between two Macs, but using OneDrive from Mac to Windows is a bit twitchy. It works, but you really need to suspend sync while you’re doing it. I haven’t tried OneDrive Windows to Windows (for RM) as I don’t have RM on multiple Windows machines.
I have been successful with a rather unorthodox setup where I’m running RM7 on one Mac and RM8 on the other and I’m syncing RM7 to RM8 using TreeShare. I’m getting ready to try a 3-way sync with RM8 on Windows, RM8 on Mac, and RM7 on Mac via TreeShare just for fun. The RM7 on the Mac is the master, the other two are copies and at present only for testing.