Cloud
JXCirrus Finance can use iCloud to save its data on iOS and Mac OSX,
or Google Drive to save on all platforms. This lets you:
- Make sure you have a backup of your data.
- Share your finance data between devices.
Alternatively, this app can alternatively use cloud shares (such as
Google Drive, Box) to save its data on Windows,Mac OSX and Linux.
Settings
Save to iCloud
To switch on iCloud, go to settings
and tick "Save to iCloud". This will lets you save your
finance data to iCloud.
Save to Google Drive
Saving to Google Drive works like iCloud, except that you will
need to sign into a Google account (and create one before that if
you don't actually have one).
Click on "Sign In" - A browser window will open, and prompt you
to sign into your Google account. Once it says "You
can now close this window..." you can go back to this app.
Save to Cloud Share
It is generally not a good idea to save your main data file on a
cloud share.
- If you only ever edit on one device at a time, then this will
work.
- If, however, you edit your diary on 2 different devices, there
is a chance that you could end up corrupting your file, or at
least losing changes. This happens if you are not on
the internet and your cloud share does not sync properly.
The app does provide a safe way to use cloud shares between
devices however...
- Keep your main finance file on your local computer (outside
the share).
- Use the share to transfer new data between your
devices. The app will resolve conflicts when you are
not connected to the internet.
If this is your first device to use the cloud share:
- Go to Preferences then Cloud
- Tick the "Save to Cloud Share" button.
- If this is the first time you have used the cloud share, you
will be prompted to select a directory you will use to share
files. As an example - You can use "Google
Drive/JXCirrus/JXCirrusFinance" as the share directory.
If there is already a file being shared by a cloud share:
- Go to Preferences then Cloud
- Press the "Select File" in the "Cloud Share" section.
- Browse to the file that you shared from your other devices.
Automatic
The "Automatic" tick box lets you decide how the data will be saved
to the cloud. If "Automatic" is ticked, then the app
will save to the cloud after any changes.
The reason you might not want to have "Automatic" ticked, is that if
you make a lot of changes during a day, it might use slightly more
mobile data if you are constantly saving to the cloud.
If you un-tick this, you choose when to save to the cloud (see Cloud
Icon below). Only un-tick this if you use mobile data
regularly, and you want to limit the amount you use.
The app isn't silly about sending data to the cloud - It waits for
you to not do anything for 15 seconds, then saves.
Cloud Icon
When you tick "Save to iCloud" or "Save to Google Drive", you
will see a new icon on the toolbar of the main screen next to
Settings.
- The
icon means that your data has all been saved to
the cloud.
- The
icon means that your data has changed, and has
not been saved to the cloud. If you save
automatically, it should change to
after about 15
seconds. If you don't save automatically, press on
the
icon to save to the cloud. You can
still do this if you want to hurry up the automatic save.
Multiple Devices
Saving the data to iCloud or Google Drive gives you backups, and it
also allows you to use the same finance data on multiple
devices. For example, you can use the app on an iPhone,
and also a Mac computer and have the same diary on both.
When you change one, the changes automatically appear on the
other. For example: you could balance your accounts on a
Mac at home, and then record transactions on a phone.
To enable this, just select "Save to iCloud" or "Save to Google
Drive" on both devices.
A word of caution: JXCirrus Finance is good at keeping all
your devices in sync using the cloud. You can have the
app open in 2 places, and the changes in one will appear on the
other only a short time later. But - Don't be tempted to
update your diary in both apps at the same time. If you
change 2 entries at once on different devices, the system will only
keep the more recent change, which may leave you feeling confused
and angry after you "lose" an update. It is best to only
make updates in one place at a time.
Newer App Versions
Another thing to be aware of - If you are syncing between 2 devices,
and one device has an older version of this app, the app will
suspend sync until both devices have the same app version. This is
done to avoid loss of data if the data format has changed between
versions.