iCloud sync, export and storage

All of these are in Settings.

Sync across devices

Turn on Sync Across Devices to keep your collections, records and photos in your iCloud account. They then appear on your other devices signed in to the same account, with Catchall installed and sync turned on.

Before you turn it on, know that:

• Turning it off later stops this device syncing, but it doesn't remove what's already been copied to iCloud.
• If you sync, stop, change things on two devices, and start again, you'll get duplicates rather than a merge.
• Catchall has to restart before syncing begins - and before it stops. After changing the setting, quit Catchall and open it again.
• The Inbox stays on the device it was made on. Drafts waiting for review are never synced.

On a new device, your collections appear once the first sync has finished. Until then the app may look empty - give it a little while on Wi-Fi.

If you want a copy that doesn't depend on iCloud, export your data first.

Export and import

Export Data writes every collection, record and photo - plus anything still waiting in the Inbox - to a single zip file you can keep, save to Files, or send on. Nothing in the app is changed or removed. The records inside are plain JSON, so you can open the zip on a Mac and read them directly.

Import Data adds collections, records and photos from an export. It only adds what isn't already here: nothing already in the app is changed or removed, and importing the same export twice changes nothing. When it finishes, it tells you what was added and what was already there.

Exporting is a good idea:

• before turning on iCloud sync;
• before deleting a collection you might want back;
• before moving to a new device, if you don't use iCloud sync.

Storage

The Storage section shows how much space Catchall's photos use.

• Photos are kept both as files and in Catchall's database, so they can be shared across your devices. That's why the two figures overlap.
• The photos records were read from are never deleted, even when a record or collection is, because one photo can back many records.
• Unreferenced files are ones nothing points at any more.