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iCloud Syncing

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danflynn

14 Feb, 2025 01:13 AM

I used to use iCloud to sync my devices (an iMac, MackBook, iPhone and iPad, but several MacOSes ago that became hopelessly slow.

In reading through the change logs, I noticed this on build 5213:

• Improved performance of iCloud Drive syncing, especially when there are a large number of changes
• Added preferences setting to specify the first day of the week (overriding system default)
• Fixed report printing bug
• Allow investment transaction fees to be assigned to income categories
• Fixed excruciating pauses after changes are made when iCloud Drive syncing is enabled

And then this in build 5217:
* Fixes bug in previous preview version which, when syncing to iCloud Drive, would not push updates to mobile devices

Has anyone else gone back to using iCloud and will verify that it is now useable again? Before Apple made the OS change that broke it, I always felt it was faster than Dropbox, especially when quitting the app. (Also, now when I open MD on a device that hasn't been synced in a while, it may take minutes to get the file on that device brought up to speed. I have a very 397 MG data file, with transactions going back to 1995).

Thanks for any help.

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Maddy on 14 Feb, 2025 10:48 AM

   

   Hi Dan,
   Thank you for contacting Moneydance support.

   May I ask which MacOs are you running?
   I believe that the iCloud Drive Sync issue was mainly related to Sonoma but I can confirm that other users who have updated their operating system to Sequoia have reported successful results using this sync method.

   To be able to sync using iCloud Drive Sync you need to ensure that:

   • your computer/s are running Moneydance 2024.3 (5219)

   • the data file you wish to sync is stored in the default location on the computer where you set up the process. This is crucial!

   • Your devices are using the same iCloud account

   It is not currently possible to sync to multiple iCloud accounts.

   Then you should navigate to File->Syncing and turn sync off by choosing Don't Sync
   (if you were using a different sync method previously, and restart Moneydance)

   ---

   To Sync with the mobile app:

   • Navigate to File->Syncing and choose iCloud Drive
   • Set or take note of your existing "Passphrase".

   On your mobile device/s you need to install the latest iOS mobile app.

   Launch the mobile app and choose the same file as your computer.
   Enter your Password to match the Passphrase on your computer.

   • It might be useful referring you to this Youtube video

   ---

   If you are syncing with another computer (same as above) plus the following:

   Navigate to File->New->Open synced file.

   • Choose the same sync method as the primary computer

   • Enter the same Passphrase to match

   Finally, enter a "dummy"" transaction on each device and allow a few seconds for them to sync. They should display exactly the same transactions.

   I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions or need more assistance.

   --
   Maddy, Infinite Kind Support

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2. 2 Posted by dtd on 15 Feb, 2025 01:30 AM

   

   danflynn - if you have a 397mb datafile, I highly recommend using the Toolbox extension to shrink your database.

   I have data going back to 1988. (Managing your Money -> Quicken -> Moneydance)

   My file, once "shrunk" is about 90mb. It does grow, so I shrink it about every 3 months.

   That said, if you have lots of attachments, those don't shrink, so your dataset might stay fairly large, but shrinking it is a great thing to do.

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3. 3 Posted by danflynn on 17 Feb, 2025 06:57 AM

   

   Thank, @Maddy for your advice--it worked except for the last step, when I tried to open the synced file, it appeared to be brining in all of the transactions (it took quite a while), but all of the account balances were way screwed up. What I finally had to do was Import the backup file that I had created on my primary (iMac) computer...When I did that , the balances were correct and the data did sync back and fort.

   And thanks, too, to dtd for the advice on shrinking the file. It cut the size of the file by more than half and opening and closing is a lot easier now!!.

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by Maddy on 17 Feb, 2025 02:04 PM

   

   Thank you for reporting back.

   I'll close this discussion for now, but please don't hesitate to get back in touch, if you need further assistance.

   --
   Maddy, Infinite Kind Support

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5. Maddy closed this discussion on 17 Feb, 2025 02:04 PM.