Updates
For MySword 13.0 or higher, you can use the new feature Sync Backup. MySword 13.0 RC 1 was released 18 March 2022.
Updated last 10 March 2022 for link to new Sync Backup feature of MySword 13.0.
Updated last 1 April 2020 to the latest version of FolderSync - 2.9.16. The screen shots were updated (please refresh your browser if you had recently visited the page prior to the date mentioned to clear the cache). Also, because of the change in Foldersync's User Interface, some text content below was updated as well.
Introduction
MySword has an organized modules path where modules and databases are properly segregated into type. The modules are placed in one of the following folders (still inside the selected modules path, default to /storage/emulated/0/mysword):
- bibles
- books
- commentaries
- dictionaries
- journals
Besides these, there are also three other folders:
- journalsbig
- Very useful for big size journals (10MB and up) which take a long time to backup. This folder can be set to be synchronized weekly or so.
- mydata
- bookmarks.mybible
- default.xrefs.twm
- format.mybible
- highlight.mybible
- mapgeodata.mybible
- peopledata.mybible
- settings.mybible
- tags.mybible
- verselist.mybible
- notes
- The personal notes (by verse) database is named versenotes.mybible.
Because of this folder organization, it is easy to backup MySword data, your notes and journals. You can manually copy the folders to your Personal Computer or upload them to your favorite Cloud storage provider. But with the help of 3rd party tools, it will be a lot easier to not only backup the data but also synchronize the updates between two or more devices (say, you have a Tablet and a phone). Let's see below.
Setting up Google Drive and FolderSync to backup and synchronize MySword data, notes and journals
Formerly, Dropbox was used in this tutorial. However, we experienced problems syncing with Dropbox years ago that's why personally we switched to Google Drive and thus also the tutorial here.
This tutorial will demonstrate the use of the popular Google Drive storage service and FolderSync to do the automatic synchronization. Note that FolderSync Lite can also be used with other popular services like Amazon Cloud Drive, Box, OneDrive, SugarSync, LiveDrive, HiDrive, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV or windows share (Samba/CIFS) accounts.
It is assumed that you already have used or opened your Google Drive account. If you had not yet, try to open it via your browser or the Google Drive app. Now here are steps for the setup:
- Install FolderSync from the Google Play Store.
- If you do not have access to the Google Play Store, you can FolderSync via other app stores.
- Run FolderSync and register Google Drive under Accounts.
- Please note that the Lite version of FolderSync only allows two accounts.
- Tap Accounts from the main screen (or via the top left hamburger icon).
- Tap + Floating Action Button (FAB) located at the bottom right then select Google Drive in Select account type.
- Under Add Account, enter any name on Unique Name text field (e.g. MySword).
- Then tap Authenticate Account to open Google Drive access screen. You may need to enter login information for the first time then log. Tap Allow when asked FolderSync Pro wants access to your Google Account.
- Tap Save (located at the bottom right) to go back to the Accounts screen.
- Setup Folder pairs in FolderSync.
- Tap Folderpairs via the top left Hamburger icon (currently the selected screen is Accounts) then tap + (the plus button icon at the bottom right).
- Fill Unique Name with mydata (or mysword-mydata) and select MySword under Account (already selected by default).
- Tap Remote folder and create mysword top folder in Google Drive (so it will not be mixed with your other folders). Tap this folder to go inside then create these folders under mysword: mydata, journals, notes and journalsbig (this last one is optional). The latter folders will be associated with separate Folder pairs in FolderSync. The screen shot below shows the four folders under mysword:
- Tap mydata because that is the first folder we will create a Folder pair for. Then tap Select folder (the check button icon at the bottom right).
- Tap Local folder and navigate to /storage/emulated/0/mysword/mydata and select that folder.
- If this device will be a source of updates and not just a plain subscriber of updates, change the Sync type to Two-way. The screen shot below shows the 5 settings we had so far:
- Locate Scheduling setting which is set to Disabled by default (Disabled means you have to perform Manual Sync). If you only want to sync every hour, then enable Use scheduled sync then select Every hour under Sync interval. See the above screen shot.
- Then tap Save (the diskette button icon).
- Repeat the steps above to create three more Folderpairs (notes, journals and folders) for the other three folders. If you are not planning to use the foldersbig folder, then skip that one. For foldersbig, the best setting for the Folderpair schedule is weekly. For journals and notes, you can select hourly or daily schedule setting.
- The screen shot below shows three folder pairs created (journalsbig is not included).
- Perform synchronization for the first time to upload the files to Google Drive.
- Tap Sync status via the Hamburger menu on the top left (screen is currently set to Folderpairs). Then tap Sync All if it is not yet syncing. Below is a screen shot of a successful sync when you tap Sync History.
Note that the default Connection type is Wifi but you can change it under the Connection setting of the Folderpair. - Under Sync History, you can tap an entry to see the details of the sync: status, started date/time, duration, number of files, size of data transferred and the files uploaded (or downloaded in case of subscriber of updates).
- You can also monitor previous syncs using this screen.
- Now the next step is to setup another device as a subscriber (or publisher also) of updates.
- Enter the appropriate Name for the account.
- You do not need to create remote folders (at Google Drive) as they are already created (and populated as well with initial content).
- Select the appropriate Remote folder and Local folder.
- If this device will be a sole subscriber of updates, you can setup the Folder pairs such that the Sync type to To local folder; then in Sync options below, change the If conflicting modifications from Skip file to Use remote file. The last setting will ensure that the local file will be overwritten in case it was updated (like the case of settings.mybible which is periodically updated) locally and the remote copy is also newer so there is a conflict.
- If this device will be used as a publisher also of updates, you can maintain Sync type of the Folder pairs to Two way; then in Sync options below, change the If conflicting modifications from Skip file to Use remote file if this is a secondary publisher of updates, Use local file in case this is the primary publisher (overriding others). In case both of your devices are both primary publishers, use Overwrite oldest. If you do want not to use the automatic overwrite, maintain the Skip file option. This default setting will show a Red Exclamation point icon on the Sync status which means there is a conflict and you will have to manually synchronize the files or change the option recently mentioned.
- Follow the same steps above except some parts in step 5:
- Then perform the sync in Step 6 in case it has not started automatically yet after saving the Folder pairs.
Tips
Here are some important tips:
- Use journalsbig in case you have very large journals like mine (38+MB of 5,000+ topics since 2002) as they take some time to upload/download if you have small bandwidth. My journal takes around 4 minutes to upload when using the old Internet Provider Broadband of 5 Mbps max but now it's 10 seconds using Fiber provider of 25 Mbps max. Also set the sync schedule to longer time intervals like Weekly.
- settings.mybible holds every setting in MySword like you current Bible verse, other module positions (navigation positions), button arrangement and so on. This is updated often though it is only read once when MySword is started. Note that some settings especially the navigation positions are cached and are only saved on Exit or when other settings (like those in the Preferences) are changed. So if you want to make sure the whole settings are backed up, exit MySword before synchronization.
- Turn on the Wifi only after closing MySword to make sure the settings.mybible is fully updated. After turning on the Wifi, Foldersync will automatically sync folders that are delayed due to the absence of Wifi. After the sync is finished, you can turn off Wifi.
- For a subscriber of update, turn on the Wifi and let the synchronization to finish first before starting MySword to ensure new version of the files are downloaded first. After the sync is finished, you can turn off Wifi.
- If you have a Tablet with a different preferential setting compared to your phone, syncing settings.mybible in mydata folder will make the two settings the same so do not be surprised. It is possible to sync mydata folder with settings.mybible as an exception (Filter) but that is only available in the Full version of FolderSync.
- If you encounter an Exclamation point icon on the Sync Status of Foldersync, that means there are some update conflict and the If conflicting modifications option is set to Skip file. This can happen in some instances like:
- You had modified a file (like settings.mybible for example) before syncing a more recent version from Dropbox.
- Both devices are in sync, then both are updated. One device is able to successfully sync upload the file to Dropbox. When the other device performs a sync, there is a conflict.
If you are sure that both updates are very important, you can manually copy first the update to a temporary journal (by creating the entry) before overwriting the file. Then restore manually the lost update. - Use one device as publisher of main updates (Folderpair setting Sync type is To remote folder and If conflicting modifications set to Use local file) while the others as subscribers of updates (Folderpair setting Sync type is To local folder and If conflicting modifications set to Use remote file). This prevents conflicts but automatically overwrites updates done in subscribers.
Happy syncing MySword!