How do I find files synched on iCloud

Derek's Avatar

Derek

26 Jul, 2022 10:43 AM

I synch my account using iCloud. Recently what I suppose is some kind of bug in Moneydance caused me to recover my files from a backup. Having performed a search on one of my accounts Moneydance would not return to its normal state and would only show me items corresponding to the search. Now I find that when I move to my laptop it wants to load the old pre recovery files and I am unable to find the latest version. Where are the files stored on iCloud?

  1. 1 Posted by Derek on 26 Jul, 2022 10:56 AM

    Derek's Avatar

    problem solved. Curiously Moneydance gave the recovered file on my desktop a new name but when loading it to my laptop it used the original name.

  2. 2 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 26 Jul, 2022 11:13 AM

    Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox)'s Avatar

    Turn on iCloud sync. Then…
    Install/run toolbox extension.
    Click top right, open MD folder button. Select sync folder. Then copy/remember this location.

  3. 3 Posted by Derek Harris on 04 Aug, 2022 08:43 AM

    Derek Harris's Avatar

    Apologies for delay but have been away. Thanks for pointing me toward Toolbox, looks to have an interesting set of functions. Will try to set aside some time to look into it further. Currently although I thought the issue was solved my accounts are not syncing across my two computers.

  4. 4 Posted by dwg on 04 Aug, 2022 09:06 AM

    dwg's Avatar

    A Moneydance restore disables syncing.

    Restore must be able to recover from many situations, one of which is corrupted on disk data, if syncing was left enabled your restored data would get corrupted by the data in the shared syncing area.

  5. 5 Posted by Derek Harris on 04 Aug, 2022 10:43 AM

    Derek Harris's Avatar

    Thanks, however there was no sign that Moneydance had disabled syncing, after the restoration it still indicated that it was synching to iCloud. However this morning on both versions I disabled synching myself, then renamed the up to date version and then reenabled synching. On moving to my laptop on opening Moneydance and reenabling synching there I found that my accounts there had updated and so all appears to be well. However still curiously the two otherwise identical versions have different file names. I have a second completely different set of accounts under yet another name and wonder what would happen if that too were synced via iCloud. Would the two be confused with each other and perhaps one be lost?

    I also note that whilst Toolbox indicates that my files are in a folder located at /Users/…/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/… my computers both indicate the location as /Users/…/Library/Containers/Moneydance/Data/Documents/… Although there are other “com.” folders, the folder “com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX” does not appear to exist.

    I now wonder whether my problems were simply caused by a delay from iCloud.

    Derek Harris
    [email blocked]

  6. 6 Posted by dwg on 04 Aug, 2022 11:54 AM

    dwg's Avatar

    The Folder/bundle name is not used in the syncing process. Moneydance assigns a unique Alphanumeric name to the data set and uses this in the process. This means you can rename the data set if you wish or different names could be used on different machines.

    Syncing multiple data sets should not be an issue as the unique Alphanumeric name is used as the shared location folder name so each data set will have its own folder structure and one data set does not know about any other data sets.

    Stuart will have to comment on toolbox but I can say the document folder will be in different locations depending on the version of macOS used, blame Apple for routinely moving things. I do not recall any location changes on Linux and there has only been one change on Windows when Vista was introduced.

  7. 7 Posted by Derek Harris on 07 Aug, 2022 09:01 AM

    Derek Harris's Avatar

    Very interested to hear that Moneydance doesn’t rely on a filename,

    Apple are very annoying by the way they alter all manner of things but in this case it seemed that Toolbox was, rather than simply indicating where files ought or would normally be, tracking them down. For example it found old Moneydance files I had moved several years ago to other obscure folders yet in the case of those that were current it, as I said, indicated that they were in a folder that didn’t exist. I suspect that Stuart will know exactly why it does that and I also expect that Apple’s habit of changing all manner of things every time it ‘updates’ macOS has something to do with it.

    Many thanks for your interesting and helpful responses.

    Derek

  8. 8 Posted by dwg on 07 Aug, 2022 09:33 AM

    dwg's Avatar

    Toolbox has a search function that will find Moneydance data sets anywhere on your system, the purposes being just that - to find Moneydance files no matter where they may be. People have "lost" their files in the past.

    Using file names, that a user can change, would be a weak point. I'm sure we would have many posts from people who decided the name should be different, Using an unique system created name avoids these type of problems and the user would only see this name if they go looking for it.

  9. 9 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 07 Aug, 2022 09:51 AM

    Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox)'s Avatar
    • Until recently, when you did a File/Restore from backup (or double-clicked a .moneydancearchive file), then Sync was silently disabled and a the sync relationship deliberately broken.

    • More recently, the same feature now defaults to leaving Sync intact and offers you a tick box to Retain Sync settings..

    • The sync relationship is designated by a long number that is unique to a dataset. Toolbox shows you this on the main screen: e.g. Dataset internal UUID: 4e4489ae-70f6-455b-a449-9d361f5c3bb6. If this changes, then sync will be disabled etc.

    • Your dataset name or location is irrelevant... The long UUID number is the link... I.e. you can rename datasets on different computers and Sync will still work...

    • As long as each 'different' dataset has a unique number then you can have different sync relationships setup.... They will not get confused.... If you are unsure, check out toolbox and the UUID number.... By default, any new datasets will always have differing UUID numbers.

    • As for toolbox finding the correct location of iCloud sync folders... What Toolbox does, is call the same internal code that MD uses, which calls the iCloud APIs, which return the physical location on disk being used.... Therefore it will only return what is being used now.....

    • But upon re-reading your message, you weren't querying the location of iCloud sync folders, but the actual dataset locations... In a similar vein, I pull the internal location known by Moneydance and do a .getCanonicalPath() on the result. This removes all obscurity from the path and returns the actual physical location on disk.

    I am curious by what you mean about this:

     also note that whilst Toolbox indicates that my files are in a folder located at /Users/…/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/… my computers both indicate the location as /Users/…/Library/Containers/Moneydance/Data/Documents/… Although there are other “com.” folders, the folder “com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX” does not appear to exist.
    

    Where do you see these paths...? Can you send screenshots?

    • Anyway, MD likes to store the dataset in the internal hidden library documents location that's allocated to the App by Apple.. In various versions, this default changes, and does / can confuse MD... It's a real PITA.. I personally disagree that the default should be a hidden location as IMHO it should be in Documents where the user can find it, manage it, and back it up.. But the MD developer and I disagree on this... BUT, for the Apple AppsStore MD app version, this library location is a must... Anyway, I just move my dataset out of that location to my Documents location and then never have this issue again.....
  10. System closed this discussion on 06 Nov, 2022 10:00 AM.

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