smartChord supports synchronization between your Android devices, allowing you to sync songs and set lists as files via your cloud. To enable synchronization, your cloud storage must be set up on your device. You’ll find all the necessary steps in the Cloud section.

There are currently two types of synchronization. Database synchronization to keep your Android devices in sync. File synchronization to exchange songs or set lists with your friends, bandmates or students.

Please note that settings are device-specific and are not synchronized. As a workaround, you can back up your data and settings on one device and then restore them to the other device.

Please note also that Google has started verifying all apps that access Google Drive. However, their verification process is taking a long time and is still not complete. We apologize for the inconvenience. For now, you will need to explicitly grant us access and bypass Google’s warning. We assure you that smartChord does not access, read, modify, or delete any of your data. However, if you still feel uneasy, we recommend creating a new Google account specifically for synchronization purposes.

Database synchronization

With database synchronization, the entries of the smartChord local database can be synchronized between different Android devices. This includes:

✅ Categories
✅ Chord pads
✅ Chord progressions
✅ Custom chords
✅ Drum kits
✅ Drum machine patterns
✅ Ear trainer exercises
✅ Exercises
✅ Favorite fingerings
✅ Favorite patterns
✅ Favorite scales
✅ Fretboard trainer exercises
✅ Logbook entries
✅ Lyrics
✅ Metronome sets
✅ Notes
✅ Patterns
✅ Set lists
✅ Songs
✅ Songwriting
✅ Tone generator sets

---

The Principle of Synchronization

During the first synchronization, the local contents of smartChord are saved as a file in a directory in your cloud
(default directory: /smartChord/sync, created automatically).

When synchronizing a second Android device, smartChord downloads this data and compares the entries based on their names and last modification times.
All newer entries or changes are automatically accepted.
If the second device detects missing or outdated items on the first device, the newer data is stored in the cloud — ready for the next synchronization.

Note: The time comparison is performed with a tolerance of one minute.

---

How to Synchronize

1. Start synchronization on device A and log in to your cloud account.
   • smartChord checks for existing data in your cloud.
   • If no data is found, it uploads the data from device A to your cloud.
2. Start synchronization on device B and log in to the same cloud account.
   • smartChord finds the data from device A in your cloud.
   • It downloads the data, compares it with the local data on device B, and shows you the differences.
3. Review the differences and confirm the synchronization.
4. smartChord then synchronizes the data and uploads the updated result to your cloud, keeping both devices up to date.

---

Step by Step Guide

1. Open the Synchronization tool
   Open it either from the Synchronization shortcut on the home screen or via the navigation menu.
   
2. Start the sync workflow
   On the synchronization overview screen, choose “Sync my devices” to begin database synchronization.
   
3. Preparation starts immediately
   The database synchronization screen opens and immediately prepares the sync. During preparation smartChord checks:
   • that a time server is reachable (time is required for comparisons)
   • whether the synchronization folder exists in your cloud
   • that no other device is currently synchronizing (parallel syncs are not allowed)
   • whether there is content to synchronize
     
4. Comparison of data
   Once preparation is complete, smartChord compares your local items with the items in the cloud (the data uploaded by other devices). The comparison will:
   • detect new, changed, and deleted itemsgroup items belonging to the same action togetheruse the timestamp of the last change as the basis for the comparison
   Tip: Click the Cloud button to switch cloud providers or to log in to a different cloud account.
   
5. Review and synchronize
   Review the comparison results. When you’re ready, click Synchronize to apply the changes. smartChord will update the local database.
   Optional (recommended for the first few times): enable “Backup before synchronization” so smartChord creates a backup before applying changes — useful if something goes wrong.
   
6. Provide data from the current device
   If you want this device to supply updated data for other devices, enable “Provide data for other devices”. After you make changes on this device, an Upload button appears. Click Upload to place the updated data into the cloud for other devices to fetch. After the upload completes, this device is synchronized and its content is available for your other devices.
   

Our video describes the database synchronization in detail:

File synchronization

With file synchronization, you can store your saved entries (songs and set lists) in the cloud (e.g. Google Drive or DropBox) in the form of text files and keep them synchronized.

So you can:

• Synchronize content between multiple Android devices from you and your bandmates or friends
• Edit text files conveniently from your (non-Android) desktop or notebook
  

How to synchronize:

• Choose a folder in your cloud
• Start the comparison
• Check which entries are to be synchronized
• Start the synchronization. It will create files for your songs or set lists on the device. And it will create songs or set lists for files in the folder, which are new or newer than the items on the device
• Start the synchronization on the other devices
• Please note: If a device updates files in the cloud or creates new files, the synchronization must be restarted on the other devices so that they also receive the new changes
  

Please note the following points:

• Files and entries are synchronized if they share the same name
• The decisive factor for the synchronization of a file is its date/time stamp. File contents are not compared. The time comparison is carried out with a tolerance of 1 minute
• When files created or modified in the cloud are synchronized with an Android device, their last-modified attributes are set to the date and time of synchronization
• smartChord saves the last synchronization date. Older dated files are ignored during synchronization
• The songs are saved as files with the file extension ‘.sccrd’. Only the files with this extension are synchronized
• The set lists are saved as files with the file extension ‘.scstl’. Only the files with this extension are synchronized
• The files are created using the UTF-8 character set. For editing on a non-Android desktop or notebook computer, an editor must be used that can handle the UTF-8 character set.