backing up before resetting iphone, then reinstalling

backing up before resetting iphone, then reinstalling

Postby zeppo » Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:36 am

I'm going to do a full reset of my iphone.

I would like to be able to backup my Flashcards Deluxe data so that I can reinstall the app , and then restore my decks with their current study history.

I know of two backup methods: 1) I have saved a full backup to dropbox and 2) I will backup the individual decks (as a 2nd backup in case full backup restore has issues).
Do both of these two options save my study history?
(I know you have sync as well, but will skip that for now).

I create my decks by using Google Docs and then importing the spreadsheet data as decks. When I create backups of individual decks, what format should I choose: Text, Basic Text, or Excel?

With either of these, after I reinstall the app and restore the data, will the Download/Update option work with my old Google Doc spreadsheets, or should I export the decks to Google Drive and use those as my backup spreadsheets going forward?
zeppo
 
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:56 am

Re: backing up before resetting iphone, then reinstalling

Postby Ernie » Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:25 am

The database has statistics. When you export individual decks, you have the option to export statistics, so make sure that toggle is on. You can open the file in Dropbox if you wish and make sure you see a "Statistics 1" column with string data. I recommend doing both of these, and you did. The format doesn't matter. If you can open Excel files easily, choose that. Basic text and text only differ on the handling of new lines and quotes on a side. Both should work equally well. Basic may be easier to read if you open it up.

If you add from Dropbox, when you later run "download/update", the app look to Dropbox, not Google.

Because of this, I would instead recommend you export to Google Drive.
1) Rename your existing Flashcards Deluxe folder (or rename files if not too many)
2) Export to Google Drive (including statistics, and media if you have those)
3) To restore, add from Google Drive
4) Rename your production "Flashcards Deluxe" directory back

The exported versions will be similar to your original version, but it will have more info (settings, statistics) and may have LESS info, for example formatting, all data on tabs 2+.
Ernie
Site Admin
 
Posts: 5009
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:12 pm
Location: San Francisco / Taiwan

Re: backing up before resetting iphone, then reinstalling

Postby zeppo » Sat Jan 18, 2020 7:45 am

!!

Ernie wrote:The database has statistics. When you export individual decks, you have the option to export statistics, so make sure that toggle is on. You can open the file in Dropbox if you wish and make sure you see a "Statistics 1" column with string data. I recommend doing both of these, and you did. The format doesn't matter. If you can open Excel files easily, choose that. Basic text and text only differ on the handling of new lines and quotes on a side. Both should work equally well. Basic may be easier to read if you open it up.

If you add from Dropbox, when you later run "download/update", the app look to Dropbox, not Google.

Because of this, I would instead recommend you export to Google Drive.
1) Rename your existing Flashcards Deluxe folder (or rename files if not too many)
2) Export to Google Drive (including statistics, and media if you have those)
3) To restore, add from Google Drive
4) Rename your production "Flashcards Deluxe" directory back

The exported versions will be similar to your original version, but it will have more info (settings, statistics) and may have LESS info, for example formatting, all data on tabs 2+.



Thanks. I already ended up doing what you said as far a renaming files and exporting to Google with statistics. I haven't actually reset my phone and reinstalled the app yet, though. The part about the exports having LESS info concerns me when you mention formatting. I'll have to check them out more closely and see how they turned out. I used the app to help in studying computer programming and because the app displays html and reads any data in google spreadsheets as html instructions, I have to be careful and include extra spaces here and there so that the data is read and displayed as text instead of html.

By the way, if the app puts statistics in column Z for example, and columns E through Y are all titled ignore, will it mess up anything if I delete columns F through Y? Reason is when I am editing notes its a good reminder to have the statistics column visible. For example, so that I remember that if I delete data in a note and replace it with other data, I need to delete the statistic data, or else delete the whole row and create a new row.
zeppo
 
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:56 am

Re: backing up before resetting iphone, then reinstalling

Postby Ernie » Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:04 pm

"The part about the exports having LESS info concerns me"

That's why I mentioned you saving off your "production" version and using the exported version only for restoring from. When adding as a new deck, the "Deck code" will be set for this Google location, then you can put your normal versions back.

You can turn HTML parsing off (in a way)... tap Edit, tap deck, Advanced, Don't Parse HTML.

You can delete "Ignore" columns. The headers are important, not the column position.

I didn't understand this part:
" I remember that if I delete data in a note and replace it with other data, I need to delete the statistic data, or else delete the whole row and create a new row."
Ernie
Site Admin
 
Posts: 5009
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:12 pm
Location: San Francisco / Taiwan

Return to Comments, Questions and Feedback