iPad App Reason For LONG iPad Backups

digitalQ

Hey guys, love the iPad app, however, be aware that the reason for the long hours of backup time required is because of your app!

Unfortunately, all images that are saved to the iPad are transferred to your computer in the backup file when you sync. This is not necessary, please consider NOT pushing the saved images with the backup or at least make it configurable.

Shizam

Thanks for posting this issue digitalQ. I'll bet there is no way around this issue if you save images locally to the application since iTunes would consider those files now part of the application. I can however warn users beforehand that all these files will get backed up... I'll look into it more.

Thanks again!
Sam

digitalQ

Thanks for the quick reply, are you one of the iPad developers? I'm a C# developer, so I won't pretend to know the object C API, however, it seems that there must be a way to exclude an app in whole or in part (application data) from backup. I don't think there is too much risk of real loss if a person does not back up the smug mug app and or it's data.

The reason I'm making this assumption is because apple does make choices as to what is backed up from the iPad / iPhone in the backup package.

Maybe you can provide feedback to apple through the developer channels to consider an addition to the API for this option. Many applications have this problem (such as Good Reader etc) but SmugMug app is a big contributor depending on how many images are stored locally.

It's to the point now where many people are not able to backup there iPad's without deleting applications (SmugMug being one of them) because the backup is taking longer than the battery life and in most cases the sync will not charge an iPad so your battery is drained in the process.

Thanks for the consideration.
Richard
richard@digitalq.com

Shizam wrote: »

Thanks for posting this issue digitalQ. I'll bet there is no way around this issue if you save images locally to the application since iTunes would consider those files now part of the application. I can however warn users beforehand that all these files will get backed up... I'll look into it more.

Thanks again!
Sam

Shizam

I am the iPad developer I'm not aware of any options to exclude the application from backup which makes sense from Apple's perspective, users could get angry if they assume their apps are getting backed up only to find that one or two of them weren't actually being backed up, 'all or nothing' is certainly easier (Apple's thing). I'll ask around if there is a way to exclude certain files w/in your application from backup but I doubt that as well since I bet backup just compresses everything in your application bundle and saves it. Maybe if they go in the /tmp/ directory...

Sam

digitalQ

Hi Sam,

Okay - yeah, you are probably right... I suspect Apple is going to be forced to make a change to their API soon because you can't do the upgrade to v3.x without a mandatory backup, which results in the problem I have stated. I'm going to have to delete both my Smug Mug application and Good Reader as well as a few others that store data.

Unfortunately, until this problem is solved, I will leave the Smug Mug app off my iPad because I can still get to my site or simply create photo albums (which at this time does NOT appear to be backed up similar to music) but I will need to confirm this.

I love the app and hope for a fix soon from Apple. Like you said, I'm not too sure there is anything you can do about it at this point.

Feel free to email me directly if needed.

Richard
richard@digitalq.com

Shizam wrote: »

I am the iPad developer I'm not aware of any options to exclude the application from backup which makes sense from Apple's perspective, users could get angry if they assume their apps are getting backed up only to find that one or two of them weren't actually being backed up, 'all or nothing' is certainly easier (Apple's thing). I'll ask around if there is a way to exclude certain files w/in your application from backup but I doubt that as well since I bet backup just compresses everything in your application bundle and saves it. Maybe if they go in the /tmp/ directory...

Sam

mbrady

The SmugWallet app for iPhone has option for storage where you can pick Cache or Documents. According to the help text in the app, the Cache setting does not include the photos with a backup (which means you'd have to re-download them all if something happened), and the Documents settings says it will slow down the backups but you won't have to re-download after a restore.

Perhaps the Smugmug iPad app could implement the same sort of option?

Shizam

Ah,
Thats a good idea. I do currently already cache but I don't clear it when you quit the app. If I cleared it when you quit then the backup wouldn't take so long. I'll make a note to add this as an option.

Shizam

@digitalQ Looks like there is a directory I can store stuff in that persists between application launches but isn't backed up, the next version will use this directory.

twincitiesphoto

Shizam - I hope you are working to get all the kinks and bugs out of the app before taclking this issue of the long back up - currently the iPad app is almost unusable for me - and others - as noted in another post here on this forum.
Blank Screens, the app quitting unexpectedly - it's practically unusable for me at this point - as well as my mother's ipad - same issues.

Thanks.

Shizam

Hey TwinCities,
I've been working the Java Uploader for a while now (and SmugShot to some extent) but the iPad app is soon the be the main focus. Fortunately I've got most of the problems/solutions figured out, just gotta implement them, like the cache directory (thanks for the back-and-forth on that digitalQ).

Sam

twincitiesphoto

Thanks Sam! - I knew you all would be all over it - so anxious to get the update - love the app!!! So does my Mom since it allows her to see all the family photos so easily on her ipad!