Synchronize
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
✅ Exercises
✅ Favorite fingerings
✅ Favorite patterns
✅ Favorite scales
✅ Fretboard trainer exercises
✅ Metronome sets
✅ Notes
✅ Patterns
✅ Set lists
✅ Songs
✅ Tone generator sets
The principle of synchronization: During the first synchronization, the local contents of smartChord are stored as a file in a directory in your cloud (default setting is ‘/smartChord/sync’ automatically). When syncing a second Android device, the device fetches this data and compares the entries based on their names and last modification time. All newer entries or changes are accepted. If the second Android device has detected missing or out-of-date items on the first Android device, the newer data will be backed up in the cloud, ready for the next sync.
Please note: The time comparison is done with a tolerance of one minute.
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.