8 replies to this topic

[Tom Rianhard]

I want to share some of my RM databases with remote Apple product users. To the best of my knowledge, iTunes will only allow me to share with Apple devices that can be directly wired to my laptop where I use RM and Ancestry.

One alternative is to use DropBox. As far as I am able to determine, this would require me and my prospective sharees to spend 9.99 per month in order to install and work with DropBox so as to share RM databases. Have I missed something or misunderstood this methodology? 

I already have minimum, free cloud-based storage apps that could be used. Certainly iCloud/iDrive is automatically available to Apple device users.

I also see that the new Files app implies that there is the ability to drag and drop files from cloud-type apps to other apps that cooperate. Couldn't RM be enabled for something such as this?

Thanks

Tom Rianhard

[J P]

Just a clarification on iTunes transfer. Yes, the iOS device has to be connected by wire the first time, as this makes the device known. However, subsequently, once the device is known, you can use WiFi and do not have to connect it by wire every time. (At some point in the future you seem to have to connect by wire, once, again, as at some stage devices become unknown to iTunes. I have no idea what is the trigger for this loss of knowledge.)

Yes, it would be good for RM to be able to find files on iDrive, as that would make this area much simpler without the need to use iTunes or Dropbox.

[Tom Rianhard]

Thanks J P! You have reminded me that you mentioned that iTunes would work thru Wi-Fi. Yesterday I ran iTunes without connecting the iPad, and there was no little iPhone icon to the right of the 'Music' button. I did look around for the 'File Sharing' option elsewhere, but could not find it. This leads me to believe that the recent changes to iTunes has changed the WiFi option, among other things. One step forward, one back.

 

One big helping of crow on my plate; I found a different web address for DropBox, and found a free offering for a small slice of cloud storage, 2GB. I have downloaded the install program.

 

How can we raise the visibility of my desire to have iDrive added to the file sharing alternatives in RootsMagic?

[J P]

Thanks J P! You have reminded me that you mentioned that iTunes would work thru Wi-Fi. Yesterday I ran iTunes without connecting the iPad, and there was no little iPhone icon to the right of the 'Music' button. I did look around for the 'File Sharing' option elsewhere, but could not find it. This leads me to believe that the recent changes to iTunes has changed the WiFi option, among other things. One step forward, one back.

Maybe this is a difference between the Mac and PC versions of iTunes. Just checked on my Mac and iTunes can still see my iPhone and iPad that I connected by cable some days ago.

[Tom Rianhard]

J P, would you please describe where you see the IPhone and iPad devices in the iTunes window.

Thanks

[J P]

J P, would you please describe where you see the IPhone and iPad devices in the iTunes window.
Thanks

On the initial iTunes panel, on the top line just below the music controls, there is a pull-down towards the left hand side that offers options of Music, Films, TV Programmes, Podcasts and Audiobooks. To the right of that is a small icon that looks a bit like a small iPhone. If I select that, then I get a list of, in my case, an iPhone and an iPad. These are active on my network but attached by WiFi. (The Mac connects to the same LAN via Ethernet.) Selecting one of those devices, the menu at the left changes to offer information about that particular device. The default panel provides a Summary of the device - serial number, software level and backups, together with various option settings. Moving down the left hand menu under Settings, the options are Summary, Music, TV Programmes and so on, but the last one is File Sharing. That is the panel that allows you to move files to the RM app. Select RM on that panel and you can add files, and they will be transferred. If you want to delete a file, select it and just use the delete key.

Hope that helps.

[Tom Rianhard]

Thanks again, J P. As you surmised, there appears to be a difference in functionality between your iTunes and mine. When I disconnect the wired iPad, the little iPhone-like icon disappears. It doesn't reappear until I rewire the iPad.

 

After I reran iTunes, I selected the iTunes Help button on the menu bar at the top. Then I selected the 'About iTunes' option at the bottom of that dropdown list. The pop-up window allows some info to scroll up from the bottom. It shows the following information: iTunes version 12.7.3.46

 

What does your information show?

[J P]

Thanks again, J P. As you surmised, there appears to be a difference in functionality between your iTunes and mine. When I disconnect the wired iPad, the little iPhone-like icon disappears. It doesn't reappear until I rewire the iPad.
 
After I reran iTunes, I selected the iTunes Help button on the menu bar at the top. Then I selected the 'About iTunes' option at the bottom of that dropdown list. The pop-up window allows some info to scroll up from the bottom. It shows the following information: iTunes version 12.7.3.46
 
What does your information show?

12.7.3.46 - so the same.

Maybe this is something to do with Bonjour - a protocol that is used on the LAN to broadcast awareness of Apple devices and services. As I understand it (vaguely), this is installed on Windows when iTunes is installed. I gather that it can be problematic on Windows and people often remove it. Assuming you havent done that and it is actually running in the background, perhaps it just isnt working properly. I assume a wired iPad is found via other means, but maybe not.

[Tom Rianhard]

Peeling the layers of the proverbial onion!

 

My iPad connects to my Surface via the USB port on the Surface. The iPad power cable allows the electric plug to be removed, leaving a USB connector for the Surface. There is no LAN so I guess that Bonjour bid me Au Revoir.

 

Letting no good deed go unpunished (sort of), this further underscores my requests for the addition of iDrive as connective tissue between my PC and the Apple devices that I want to share with, most specifically the iPad across the room.