Desktop sync not working for records imported from .csv

Codebook Issues
1

I imported a dataset from an old iPhone app containing a list of personal information into Codebook desktop (Windows 11, Codebook version 5.04). The file had these headers: Category,Number,Entry,Note,Expires,If lost. There were also some new categories not previously existing in Codebook.

After a couple of tries with no apparent error but nothing new appearing, I tried creating the new categories manually then re-importing. Eventually the items appeared, I think after some clicking caused a refresh, but with duplicates because presumably two of the imports actually worked before the items showed up.

But the problem is that these new records don’t show up when I sync with my iPhone & iPad Codebook apps; this has been working fine for manual entries but not these imported ones. The new categories showed up on the sync, but none of the new items. I’ve run integrity checks on all three and nothing untoward shows up. The record count shows 997 in the desktop version but only 707 on the iOS versions, so the sync isn’t working although I don’t get any error messages or logs on running it.

One thing that might be a cause of the issue: when i open the .csv file in Wordpad I see that the text entries - including those with space characters - are not delimited with quote marks. The items are correctly separated with commas though.

2

Hello @murgy,

Thank you for reaching out regarding this issue, we have been investigating the sync issue related to the CSV import and have a fix in place for our upcoming Codebook 5.1 release. In the interim to address the sync behavior we can utilize the merge feature available within the Sync menu. Can you let me know which sync service you are using? Once we have that information I will provide instructions to address the sync behavior.

3

Hi Nick,

Thanks for getting back to me. I’m using Desktop WiFi to sync my Windows computer with my iOS devices.

Regards,

Richard Murgatroyd

4

Hi @murgy,

I edited your last post to remove your email address and phone number to prevent spam.

  1. Enable Sync Operations on your mobile device by following these instructions: Codebook Help - Sync Operations
  2. Set the operation to Merge on your mobile device and start the Merge. Choose whichever device you feel to be “most correct” as the conflict authority.
  3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for every other mobile device you’re syncing with.
  4. If you have any other Desktops/Laptops, repeat steps 1 & 2 with one of the mobiles and the other Desktops/Laptops.

Note: Choosing the conflict authority doesn’t choose all the data from one device, it’s only used in edge cases where the Standard conflict resolution can’t determine which record was updated more recently as described here: https://www.zetetic.net/codebook/documentation/sync-operations/#merge

Would you give that a try and let us know your results?

5

Thanks Nick – this has worked.

Regards,

Richard

6

Hi @murgy,

Great, I’m happy to hear that worked. Thank you again for your patience while we prepare to release Codebook 5.1.0 on all platforms soon.