Syncing Moneydance between PCs/iPad and Mobile Phone via Dropbox
I have been running Moneydance V 2020.1 (1928) on a Lenovo PC running Windows 10 and syncing successfully via Dropbox with an iPad Mini 2 and a Samsung Android mobile.
I have a new Windows 10 PC on which I have loaded/registered the same version of Moneydance as above and loaded a data file using the "Restore from Backup" option in the File menu. I have loaded Dropbox to this new PC, signed into my Dropbox account and attempted to sync the Moneydance file using the Dropbox folder option; this does not seem to have been successful. I think this is because I had inadvertently exceeded the the number of connected devices allowed by my Dropbox plan. However, syncing between the old PC and the mobile devices has now been lost. To work around this I set up a new Dropbox account and shared the Moneydance sync folder in the original Dropbox account with the new one. The new DB account is being used on the mobile phone - still does not sync with the MD app. I no longer receive warnings that too many devices are connected to my original DB account and my new PC is shown as syncing with DB.
I see that the Moneydance sync folder in DB now contains 2 subfolders (used to be 1?) - see attached screenshot.
I'm sorry that the story is long and involved but I hope that you can help me to sync between my PCs and also with my mobile apps.
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1 Posted by derekkent23 on 28 Jun, 2021 04:08 PM
I am not support staff, just a user.
Hi Bob
Your setup.
Two windows computers with Dropbox Client installed, that is you can see the Dropbox folder on your hard drives. Sync set to Dropbox Folder.
Two mobile devices running the mobile app on an iPad Mini 2 and a Samsung Android phone. Correct?
You should note that the Moneydance mobile apps do not use the Dropbox app if you have installed them on your mobile devices. The Moneydance mobile app has a Dropbox API embedded so it sync directly with your cloud account. The embedded Dropbox API does not count toward a device limit. So, unless you need Dropbox installed on your mobile devices for another reason you can uninstall and keep to the 3 device max limit on a single free account.
The fact you have two alphanumeric folders in Dropbox.moneydancesyn suggests you have two separate sync underway instead of having all devices on the same sync.
Once you have decided if you want to remove Dropbox from your mobile devices or use two separate Dropbox account with the .moneydancesync folder shared you need to reset syncing to use only one sync path. If you are not sure how to do this post explaining the setup you want to go with.
Hope this helps
2 Posted by dwg on 28 Jun, 2021 09:54 PM
I'm a fellow user.
Jut for information your core problem is contained in the statement:
"I have a new Windows 10 PC on which I have loaded/registered the same version of Moneydance as above and loaded a data file using the "Restore from Backup" option in the File menu"
You did exactly the right thing in loading the same version of Moneydance, but loading the data file in this way will not work.
This method create a new data file that is not associated with the existing data file in any way and cannot be linked into the existing syncing relationship, you can only create a brand new syncing relationship taking this approach.
The only way to add another machine, is to install Moneydance as you did and then use the menu to take the path File --> Syncing, or the option to create a new account set on the welcome screen .
Then select open synced file
As you are using Dropbox, you would select either Dropbox folder if you have the client installed or Dropbox connection if you do not. You then go through a series of windows to select the folder and data set.
Once this has been done Moneydance will be linked into the syncing relationship and will populate the local machine by pulling data from Dropbox.
3 Posted by bobtuft on 01 Jul, 2021 12:56 AM
Many thanks for you help dwg. I created a new data set in Moneydance on my new pc as outlined in your email and linked it to the correct sub-folder in the Moneydance sync folder; now syncs with the other pc and the other mobile devices.
[for derekkent23 info - I have decided to keep the additional DB account and share the MD and other folders I need with the original account. Moneydance syncing is working ok on the mobile device connected to my additional DB account so I assume this will be ok].
dwg - I would like to clean-up the MD data files on my new pc - now have a dataset resulting from my initial "Restore from Backup" data load; will it be safe to locate this on my pc and delete it? When I have done this can I safely remove the MD sync sub-folder which is/was linked to the restored from backup data file in the Dropbox folder in File Explorer (or should I leave well alone.
Any advice welcome,
Regards
Bob
4 Posted by dwg on 01 Jul, 2021 01:31 AM
Yes it is safe to do what you describe, let me outline the really paranoid approach.
Before doing the deletes take a backup of the data in a safe place, you could for instance decide to move the data to a "to be deleted folder" rather than doing an outright delete, make sure everything works as it should then delete from the "to be deleted" folder.
System closed this discussion on 30 Sep, 2021 01:40 AM.