Posts Tagged ‘Backup’

Android – changes to logbook storage location

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

Version 5.0.0 of Diving Log for Android has been released, which now targets Android 11, as required by Google. This has been a challenging release, because Android 11 does not allow apps access to the general file system anymore. Up to now, Diving Log stored the logbook files in the “Diving Log” folder in the root of the device. This folder was not deleted when the app was uninstalled, so your logbook files were not deleted either.

Android 11 requires storing all data within the internal app folder, which is deleted when the app is uninstalled. So, this requires some strategy to avoid accidentally data loss, e.g. when a user temporarily uninstalls the app because something doesn’t work.

Previous logbook location

New logbook location

Phone/Android/data/com.divinglog.divelog/files/Logbook

When you update from a previous version of Diving Log, you do not have to do anything. Diving Log will migrate all logbooks to the internal folder and automatically backup the logbooks from time to time to the former external “Diving Log” folder (which won’t be deleted). A “!!!FolderMoved!!!.txt” file is created in the old folder as indicator, which contains the path to the new folder.

Once you do a fresh install of the app, you have to manually select a backup folder to avoid deletion of your logbooks during uninstall. You can do this from the start screen shown below. You can also restore your logbooks from a previous backup folder. You can later configure the automatic backup in the app settings screen:

Start screen with backup and restore options

Configure backup in settings

Tip: You can select the backup folder on a removable SD Card, because you can easily retrieve the card even when the device does not boot anymore. Please remember, this automatic backup is still only locally on your device! So, if your Android device is lost or damaged, it won’t help you. Additionally, you should backup your logbook to the cloud or a PC.

Diving Log 6.0 can handle both logbook locations, so USB synchronization will work, no matter which Android app version you have.

You can see the current logbook location at the top of the “Logbook Management” screen. You can also use this screen to import any backups into the internal app logbook folder, if you’ve dismissed the start screen restore function:

Logbook storage path

Import backup files

SkyDrive Sync

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Microsoft has finally released SkyDrive apps for Windows, Mac and smartphones and thus I could integrate a SkyDrive sync very easily into Diving Log. It works exactly the same as the existing Dropbox sync and is using a Divelog folder within your sync folder. You can backup your logbook data into the cloud storage and also sync logbook files across different computers. Just push the logbook into the cloud service, wait until the sync client has finished and then you can import the changes on the other PC into your logbook.

SkyDrive Sync

I’ve updated the recently published beta version if you want to try the SkyDrive sync now (you’ll find it in the “Web” dropdown menu of the main toolbar). Make sure that you’ve installed the SkyDrive client application for Windows. Please note, Diving Log for Windows Phone has SkyDrive not yet implemented, so you still have to use Dropbox to sync your dives to Windows Phone at the moment.

Dropbox Sync

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

The next update of Diving Log will also contain the ability to synchronize logbooks across multiple Windows PC’s, Mac’s and Smartphones using the new Dropbox sync function. Dropbox is a very popular, free and multi-platform online storage and sync service. Once you’ve installed the Dropbox client on all your PC’s and Mac’s you can exchange easily any file between your computers by simply coping the file into the special Dropbox folder on your disk. Note: The Dropbox client application has to be installed on the PC to use this sync function!

Dropbox Sync

But Diving Log does not simply copy your desktop logbook file, because the Access database format is not really platform independent and could not be read on the Mac or on smartphones. The new Dropbox sync will export your logbook into the SQLite format and also import any changes from other computers back into your logbook. The sync function can manage different logbook files and also additional information like the last sync date and time and from which computer the logbook was last updated.

I will add support for Dropbox sync in future to the Windows Phone 7 version, so you can seamlessly exchange logbook data between any device running WP7, Windows or Mac OS. This feature provides you additionally an online backup system, so you can easily get your dives back when your hard drive crashed.

Diving Log 5.0 – Latest Updates

Monday, February 8th, 2010

I want to give you a quick overview about the recent updates of the current version 5.0:

  • Backup function added
  • External tools management added
  • UDDF Import improved for DR5 dive computer
  • UDDF Export improved for DR5 dive computer
  • Support for Mares Icon HD (Import DiveOrganizer)
  • GUI Improvements when Windows runs in classic style

The backup function has been improved a bit since version 4.0 and is able to maintain several different logbook files. The backup files can also be zipped.

Backup Function

The external tools function is now also included. With this function, you can add a shortcut to any file or program to the “Tools” menu.

External Tools

External Tools Manager

If you own a DR5 dive computer from HeinrichsWeikamp, you can use the new improved UDDF export to upload any dive from any dive computer to your DR5. Make sure to set in the export settings the “DR5 Compatibility” option to “True”. With the improved UDDF import you can select now several UDDF files and import them at once. This makes it much easier to import from the DR5 where every dive is stored in a single file.

UDDF Export

If you own a Mares Icon HD dive computer, please write me an email. I need some dive data from the Icon HD in order to test the import function a bit more (I had no real data during the development of the importer). Thank you!

Import Diving Log files

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Here you can see how to import Diving Log logbook files, which has been improved from version 4.0. Now you have more control which data will be imported, so you can use it to exchange data with logbook files from other users, e.g. you only have to enter new dive sites once, and then import them into the other logbook files.

Import Diving Log logbook files

Another new feature is the automatic backup before critical operations. Diving Log has a backup function (which is not yet included in version 5.0), and you should additionally backup your logbook file regularly to a secure location, but sometimes it can happen that you edit something and save it to the database and want to undo it. But due to the characteristic of a database, deleted records and other changes cannot be undone. In the latest version every time you delete something or sync from a device (iPhone, Windows Mobile device) back to the PC, an automatic backup file will be created before. The backup file has the same name as your logbook file, but with the extension *.bak, e.g. Logbook.bak and is stored in the same location. If you have made a mistake and want to undo it, close Diving Log, rename your logbook file (e.g. to LogbookOld.mdb), make a copy of the backup file and rename the extension to *.mdb and open this file in Diving Log.

The feedback of the Release Candidate 1 was overall positive and revealed a number of bugs which were not found during the beta period. Thank you to all testers so far!