Mobile Devices and Dropbox Sharing

ReunionTouch App for Mobile Devices

System Requirements
Sharing a Family File with a Mobile Device

How Does the Synchronization Work?

Sharing Status

Sharing a Branch or Subset of a Family File

Making Changes on Multiple Devices Simultaneously

Deleting Family Files on a Mobile Device

Device Limitations

Using Dropbox to Share Your Family File with Other Macs

Guidelines for Using Dropbox with Reunion

Organizing Files on Dropbox

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ReunionTouch App for Mobile Devices

ReunionTouch is a mobile version of Reunion. It runs on iOS and is designed to let you view and edit your Reunion family file information on mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Changes made to your family file on mobile devices will appear in your family file on the Mac, and vice versa. There's no need to "manually" sync your Mac and devices. Synchronization is automatic and nearly instantaneous. This happens via Dropbox, a file-sharing service which is free when using up to 3 devices. Reunion uses Dropbox for this purpose because, in our experience, Dropbox provides the most reliable, most friendly, and most OS-compatible file-sharing service available.

ReunionTouch is a universal app, meaning one app works on all of Apple's mobile devices (excluding the Apple Watch).

For most people, the ability to view their family file "on the go" will be reason enough to use ReunionTouch on a mobile device. For others, the ability to make a correction, add a detail, add a new person, etc., while traveling or visiting relatives, will make ReunionTouch a very convenient and handy tool.

Generally speaking, the majority of your data entry should happen on the Macintosh, which is a superior tool for data entry in most cases. The ReunionTouch app on a mobile device is designed to supplement your use of Reunion on the Macintosh, meaning ReunionTouch probably won't be your primary means to enter/add data to your family file.

System Requirements for Mobile Device Sharing

To use Reunion for Macintosh with ReunionTouch on a mobile device, you'll need...

Sharing a Family File with a Mobile Device

To begin sharing a family file on your Mac with a mobile device, follow the steps below. (You'll only need to do this one time.)

  1. Establish a connection to the internet.
  2. Be sure Dropbox is installed on your Mac and you have a Dropbox account. If you need Dropbox for the Mac, click here.
  3. On your Mac, Quit Reunion (if it is running).
  4. In the Finder, move your family file into Dropbox via drag-and-drop. Do not use the Dropbox Web site to do this. If you're not sure how to drag your family file to Dropbox, click here.
  5. Make sure Dropbox is finished syncing before proceeding.



    Note: If you're already Dropbox-savvy and plan to move other Reunion-related items to Dropbox for sharing — for example, if you'd like to use Reunion on two different Macs and have shared folders for multimedia, reports, charts, etc. — suggestions for Dropbox file organization are here.
  6. On your mobile device, launch the ReunionTouch app.
  7. In the "Welcome to ReunionTouch" window on your device, tap Connect to Dropbox. Then tap Allow. (Note: You may be asked to sign into Dropbox using your email address and password that you used when opening your Dropbox account. Once you enter your email and password, tap "Sign in and link" — there will be no Allow button.)
  8. Tap "Download a family file from Dropbox."
  9. A list of files on Dropbox will appear. Navigate until you see your family file and tap its name. If you need to move "up" a folder (or back out of a folder, so to speak) scroll to the bottom and tap "Up a folder."

Once you've completed the steps above, your family file will appear each time you open ReunionTouch on your device. (Steps 7, 8 and 9 won't be necessary.)

If you have multiple family files, then you can close the current family file by tapping Tools > Close this family file. To open a different family file, tap the name of your family file in the list at the top of the "Welcome to ReunionTouch" window (under the heading "Family files on this device").

How Does Synchronization Work?

Once a family file has been shared with a device, any changes made on the device will appear in the family file on the Mac, and vice versa. There's no need to "manually" sync — it happens automatically and nearly instantaneously.

Essentially, the Reunion family file on your Mac — which must be located in your Dropbox folder, and only in your Dropbox folder — can be considered a "host" which is shared with devices, like the iPad or iPhone.

Sharing is initiated on the device when you first "Open a family file on Dropbox" (as described in the preceding section). When you do this, the device creates a local or "client" version of the family file that resides on the device. You'll see its name under "Family files on this device."

Thus, for greatest efficiency and performance, a "client" family file resides on the device and a "host" family file resides in Dropbox on the Mac. The device(s) and the Mac are not reading and writing to the same database file all the time; however, the tracking and syncing of changes does happen inside the host family file on Dropbox, utilizing Reunion's integration of Dropbox's cloud-sharing technology.

Information can be modified in Reunion and ReunionTouch even without an internet connection. For example, if you take your iPad on the road and make some changes, then when your iPad resumes its internet connection, open your family file on the device and the changes will be synced back to your host family file on Dropbox.

Note: Once you’ve moved your family file to Dropbox and have begun sharing the family file, it’s important to leave the family file in Dropbox. Otherwise, sharing will stop. Likewise, in order for syncing to be maintained, don't turn off Dropbox or "pause" its syncing. The Dropbox app should always be running on the Mac (it's designed to do this) — and when it is running, you’ll see the icon in the menubar.

Sharing Status

On the Mac, you can get a glimpse of the way syncing is working by choosing File > Sharing Status. The sharing status will be one of these...

The Sharing Status window also shows...

In ReunionTouch, the sharing status appears by tapping Tools > Sharing Status. The sharing status will be one of these...

Note: When the sharing status is not "sharing," you can still make changes to your family file on the device. When you do get the device back online and Dropbox is active, open your family file in ReunionTouch and the changes will be automatically synced to your host family file in Dropbox.

Reset Sharing

Occasionally, the sharing of a family file will need to be reset.

"Reset" means that sharing with the client starts over and the starting point is the current state of the host family file on the Mac. After sharing has been reset on the Mac, opening the family file on your device will download the latest version of your family file from Dropbox.

Note: After a reset, make sure Dropbox is finished syncing before opening the family file on your device(s).

This message will appear on the device, when the family file is opened after a reset...

A reset happens automatically in two situations...

A reset can be initiated manually by choosing File > Sharing Status and clicking the Reset Sharing button. It's a good idea to do this occasionally because the family file in Dropbox tracks all changes made to the family file on your devices. This includes small stuff, like minor edits to your database, and also larger stuff, like the addition of media items, notes, etc., on your devices. Over time, the family file can grow — as a result of tracking all these accumulated changes — and thus sharing should be reset. Think of this as "compacting" your family file. Nothing is lost, but the contents are consolidated and optimized.

The following features will cause sharing to be reset automatically...

Making Changes on Multiple Devices Simultaneously

Changes can be made on the mobile device and the Macintosh simultaneously. In fact, you could place your family data on multiple devices, for example, make changes on an iPhone, on the iPad, and the Macintosh, and everything will be in sync, as long as you are connected to the Internet and Dropbox. Or, as soon as you re-connect to the Internet/Dropbox, everything will sync.

Deleting Family Files on a Mobile Device

You can delete the client family files on your mobile device directly on the mobile device. Simply swipe from right-to-left across the name of the family file in the "Welcome to ReunionTouch" window that lists your family files. Then, tap Delete. This does not affect the host family file on your Mac.

Sharing a Branch or Subset of a Family File with a Mobile Device

There may be cases where you want to share a subset of your family file; perhaps all your relatives, or all relatives of your spouse. To accomplish this, export a branch or subset of a family file using File > Export > Reunion Family File.

This will create another family file (containing just the branch or subset) and then you can move that file into Dropbox for sharing.

Alternatively, you can email a branch/subset to a family member who only wants to view the family data on their mobile device. Or, perhaps you want them to see the family file, but not be able to make any changes to the family file. In these cases, the other family member would need to have Dropbox and ReunionTouch, but they don't need to have Reunion.

Device Limitations

Devices are not as powerful as your Mac. They have limitations on performance, application memory, and storage. So it's possible to exceed the capability of your device and there is often no way for an app to politely let you know there's a problem.

We have successfully tested ReunionTouch with family files of 90,000+ people and having 15,000+ images. Performance does suffer, particularly as the number of images gets higher and higher and Dropbox takes more and more time to shuttle data through its cloud. This will mainly be an issue the first time you download a family file to a device — lots of images will take a lot of time. For example, 5,000 images can require up to 30 minutes to download.

To improve performance, you may consider reducing the size of large thumbnails shared with devices or precluding the sharing of large thumbnails altogether. These options are in Reunion's Multimedia Preferences. Learn more.


Using Dropbox to Share Your Family File with Other Macs

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When a family file is located in Dropbox, it can be used by another Mac — if the other Mac has access to the same Dropbox account. A common scenario is when you have a desktop Mac and a portable Mac. Or, perhaps a Mac at home and a Mac at the office.

System Requirements for Sharing Family Files on Dropbox

To share a family file with other Macs using Dropbox, you'll need...

Guidelines for Using Dropbox with Reunion

Dropbox is very reliable; that's why we employed its sharing technology in Reunion. However, it's not perfect and there are occasionally mysterious things that happen when files are being shared over the internet (uploaded, synchronized, and downloaded).

The following guidelines will help to avoid problems...

  1. Close the family file (or quit Reunion) when you're finished using it. Put another way, before opening your family file on one Mac, be sure the family file is closed on the other Mac. Reunion will warn you when attempting to open a family file which is already open on another Mac, as explained in the next section.
  2. Before opening a family file, wait for Dropbox to finish syncing. When starting your Mac or waking up your Mac from sleep, Dropbox will need time to sync. Wait until it's finished before opening your family file in Reunion. Watch the dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen and make sure the little spinning circle has disappeared. See the illustration above.
  3. Before logging off or shutting down your Mac, wait for Dropbox to finish syncing. When quitting Reunion or closing a family file, do not log out or shut down your Mac until Dropbox is finished syncing and the little spinning circle has disappeared from the Dropbox icon. See the illustration above. Or visit this web page at the Dropbox Help Center.
  4. If you lose connection to the internet, Dropbox will need time to "catch up" when you reconnect. Don't use Reunion on your secondary Mac until your connection is restored and Dropbox has finished syncing. Again, look for the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top and be sure the little spinning circle has disappeared. When it has, then it's safe to open your family file.
  5. Reunion should not be a "login item" in the system's "Users & Groups" preferences. (I.e., do not automatically launch Reunion at startup.)
  6. Backup regularly. DropBox shuttles data back and forth over the internet and is therefore subject to occasional interruption of your internet service with possible undesirable consequences. For this reason, it's always a good idea to regularly make backup copies of your family file. In case of emergency, Dropbox itself actually creates backup copies of files, which are accessed using the Dropbox web site. Learn more.
  7. Don't overstuff your Dropbox! This web page has details on checking how much space your Dropbox account has left. If your account is full or nearly full, it's impossible to predict the consequences. We've heard reports of family file downloads getting stuck and changes not being transferred properly with full or nearly full accounts. Also, for Dropbox to sync completely, you need at least the same amount of hard drive space free as the amount of storage in your Dropbox account.
  8. Remember that Dropbox works over the Internet. When internet or WiFi service is slow or has intermittent issues, it will impact the performance of Dropbox. And if Dropbox can't communicate properly with its servers, then changes made in Reunion or ReunionTouch may take longer to appear, or may appear to be simply "stuck." Sometimes simply quitting Reunion/ReunionTouch, restarting your device, restarting your Mac, etc., will resolve "stuck" conditions. However, there are times when internet service is spotty or down, and you must wait until the internet provider (or your modem/router) returns to its normal service level. The Dropbox Help Center has tips, here.

Resolving Conflicts

When Reunion detects that a family file is already open (using another copy of the Reunion app running concurrently on a different Mac), a warning will appear...

You can either...

In most cases, this feature will avoid the scenario of more than one Macintosh somehow simultaneously accessing the same family file and creating conflict.

If Reunion determines there are multiple conflicting versions of your family file, you'll receive a message and the opportunity to select which version you'd like to keep.

Examine the information in this window (particularly the Last Modified and Information columns) and select the family file you want to keep. If this family file is also being shared with devices, then sharing with devices will be reset (as described here).

Making Changes While Disconnected From the Internet

Consider the following scenario where there are multiple Macs using a family file on Dropbox and one of the Macs is "off-line" when changes are made...

Organizing Files on Dropbox

In the preceding section, we've explained how to use Dropbox to share a family file between different Macintoshes.

Dropbox can also be very effectively used to share your other Reunion files between different Macs. For example, pictures, reports, and charts.

By using Dropbox for genealogy picture files, you only need one copy of each picture file — residing on Dropbox. No matter which Mac you use, Reunion will link to the pictures on Dropbox. So there's no need to duplicate picture files on multiple Macs.

When Reunion preferences on each Mac are properly set up, any new charts or reports will, by default, be stored in Dropbox, inside your designated folders for charts or reports.

Here are the steps to organizing items for Reunion on Dropbox...

  1. Quit Reunion if it is running.
  2. In the Finder, look in your Documents and find your current Reunion Files folder.
  3. Drag the Reunion Files folder into Dropbox. (See the first illustration below.)
  4. In the Finder, look in your Pictures and find your current Reunion Pictures folder.
  5. Drag the Reunion Pictures folder into your Reunion Files folder in Dropbox. (See second illustrations below.)
  6. On each Macintosh, show Reunion where the new folders are located (using Reunion > Preferences > Folders, as explained here).
  7. To facilitate the sharing of images linked on devices, show Reunion where your Imported Media folder is located. Learn more.