Synchronization

Introduction

Synchronization of the Podcatchers is the process of updating them with the latest published content, uploading the Podcatcher logs to the Portal, and charging their batteries. The first screen you’re presented with when clicking on the Sync icon on the home page is the list of Sync Consoles connected to your Site.

Note: All Sync Consoles on your Site will sync the same content. If you have multiple hand-out points, it doesn’t matter where you synchronize the Podcatchers.

Messages and warnings

The Sync desktop application can report different things concerning the operation of the Sync Console. Read more about troubleshooting Sync Consoles here.

Sync Console overview

In the Sync Console overview you can see the consoles’ status, what happened during the last synchronization, and buttons to sync or reboot the console. You can also see at-a-glance how many Podcatchers are ready to go with the latest content, and what the consoles’ status is. Green means good, red means something’s wrong, and grey means the data is outdated.

Actions

Add Sync Console

Adding a Sync Console means linking the authentication code displayed on the Sync Console to your Site so it knows which content to sync.

Sync Console Authentication Key: the code as shown by the Podcatcher Sync application on your Sync Console.
Sync Console Description: A description for the Sync Console, for example ‘Front desk’.
Number of Docking Stations connected: the number of docking stations that are connected to the Sync Console. The system will start warning you if this number doesn’t match the number of docks found during a sync.
Daily Sync time: When should the daily sync be scheduled?
Auto-reboot on possible hang: Check this box if you want to allow the Sync application to be able to automatically reboot the computer if it seems like the computer has frozen up.

The Sync Consoles overview will update itself and show the status of the recently added Sync Console. It can take a few minutes before the Sync Console shows as ‘online’ in the Sync desktop application. It can also take a couple of minutes before the new Sync Console notices its activation in the Portal.

Remove Sync Console

If you no longer want to synchronize your Sync Console, you can remove it from the list by clicking the red [ X ] button. It’s no problem to re-add a removed Sync Console at a later date. But while it’s not linked to your Site, it’s not possible to synchronize your Podcatchers on that Sync Console.

Note: Please remember to unlink your Sync Console from your Site if you don’t use it anymore, as our systems will think something’s wrong and e-mail you about it.

Sync now

When your Sync Console in online, it’s possible to synchronize it on-demand. To do so click the [ Sync Now ] button. If this button is greyed out, your Sync Console is already syncing (or stuck trying to). The ‘Sync Now’ button turns light grey as soon a synchronization is scheduled or if the Sync Console synchronization is in progress, and it’s not possible to click the button while that’s going on.

Reboot

If there is a problem with the Sync Console, you can make it restart by pressing the [ Reboot… ] button. Within several minutes Windows will try to shut down and restart the Sync Console. Normally the Sync Console will be online again in within minutes. If you have given a reboot command, the ‘Reboot Now’ button will be greyed out until the Sync Console has been restarted.

Note: Restarting a console forces it to reboot with no chance to save changes!

Sync Console details

When you click on a sync console, the page showing its details will open. Here you can edit those details, such as when the console should schedule its daily sync, how many docking stations should be connected (so the application knows when something is wrong in that department) and so on. At the very bottom you will find an overview of all the docks and Podcatchers that were found. If there were any errors with a Podcatcher, those slots will be highlighted in red, normal Podcatchers in green, and empty slots are white.

Sync Console history

When viewing a Sync Console’s details, the other tab you’ll find (in the top-left) is History. This screen shows a summary of the syncs that took place this week. For each sync, it’ll show the date, the sync time, and the number of Docks, Podcatchers and errors that were found during the sync.

You can select a week to view and navigate between months using the mini-calendar on the left side of the page.

See also Sync Console overview for a more general article about Sync Consoles.