Sync and backups

iCloud sync

Settings → Data & Sync → Sync across my devices with iCloud. On from the first launch, so a second device picks the list up as soon as you sign in with the same Apple Account.

Turning it off or on takes effect the next time Float opens, and Settings says so next to the switch. That is not an oversight. Float connects your list to iCloud at the moment it opens it, so changing that while you are looking at the list would mean rebuilding it underneath you.

The line above the switch tells you what is actually happening: whether you are signed in, and whether changes are being sent or received right now. If iCloud was not reachable when Float opened, it says so, and your list is still there on the device, with another try next time you open it. Float always opens your list rather than refusing to start because something was unreachable.

To sync by hand, pull down on your list. On an iPhone that is the usual pull from the top; on a Mac, pull down past the top with two fingers on the trackpad until it says Release to sync. File → Sync Now on a Mac, and the Sync Now button at the end of that line in Settings, do the same (while something is wrong, that button reads Fix… instead). Float sends anything still waiting on this device, then asks iCloud whether it holds anything newer than what you have. You see Syncing… (on an iPhone, the pull shows its own spinner instead) and then Up to date, or Offline. Will sync later., which goes away on its own. Syncing by hand cannot make your other device's changes arrive sooner: those come when iCloud delivers them, usually within a minute. It also does nothing while sync is off, from the moment you switch it off: the menu item greys out, the button goes, Release to sync never appears, and on an iPhone the pull just springs back.

When sync is not working, Float says iCloud is not syncing and keeps saying it until it is fixed: if iCloud is not answering, if changes from iCloud are stuck on the way, if iCloud has changes your device has not received, or if this device's changes are not reaching iCloud. It says the same if you are not signed in to iCloud, if sync did not start when Float opened, or if Float cannot save your list; the not-signed-in message has a close button. On an iPhone it sits at the top, between the settings and search buttons, where Syncing… shows too (on an iPhone Duo with the column down the right-hand edge, it hangs at the top of the screen instead); on a Mac it shows at the bottom of the window, above the capture field, where Undo shows, and just above Undo when both are there. Tap or click it to see what is wrong and the steps to try, cheapest first, with a button wherever Float can do the step for you. On a Mac, Reopen Float quits Float and opens it again in one click, which clears most stuck syncs. If changes from iCloud are stuck or missing while Low Power Mode is on, Float says so: Low Power Mode can hold syncing back until you plug in or turn it off. Most often it is the part of the system that talks to iCloud getting stuck, and restarting the device clears it. Syncing that is just happening in the background is never shown.

Backups

Sync is not a backup: it copies your list to your other devices, including any mistake you just made. Backups are separate, and there are two kinds because they do two different jobs.

Back up

A single file named Float-Backup-… holding every todo, done ones and those in the Trash included. This is the file Restore from Backup can read, and because it is ordinary text you can open it in any editor and read it without Float.

Pick where they go in Settings → Data & Sync. Tap the location and you get the same two choices on a Mac and an iPhone:

• iCloud Drive: Float's own folder there, at iCloud Drive → Float → Backups. This is the same folder on every device you own, so a backup made on your Mac is one your iPhone can restore from, and the other way round.
• On this Mac… / On this device…: opens a panel, or the Files picker on a phone, so you can say exactly where. Backups kept this way stay on the machine that made them.

Below those, Show in Finder (Show in Files on a phone) opens the folder so you can see what is in it.

On an iPhone, Float's own folder is On My iPhone → Float, and that is where backups go until you choose otherwise. Picking it back from On this device… returns you to it.

Each device remembers its own answer: putting your phone's backups in iCloud Drive does not move your Mac's.

Because it is one folder, it holds one backup a day, not one from each device. That is the right number while sync is on: your devices are showing the same list, so a second copy of it would say nothing new, and a fortnight of daily backups is a fortnight rather than a week of each. The exception is if you have turned sync off. Your devices are then keeping separate lists, and a day's backup is whichever of them wrote it first, so a folder they share cannot stand for both. With sync off, give each device a place of its own.

iCloud Drive only appears if you are signed in to iCloud. If you pick it and later sign out, Float says so on this page rather than quietly writing somewhere else.

Turn on Automatically back up my data and Float runs them on a schedule and prunes old ones. The location can only be changed while that is on, and the page tells you plainly if backups have not been running.

Export as Markdown

A plain, readable document of your list, meant to still make sense in ten years to anything that can open text.

Float cannot read it back in, on purpose. Putting a todo back needs its exact position and timestamps, and a document written for a person to read cannot also carry all that. If you want a way back into Float, use a backup.

Restoring

Settings → Data & Sync → Restore from Backup…, then pick a Float-Backup-… file. Float tells you when it was taken and how many todos are in it before it does anything.

Restoring replaces everything in Float (here and, if sync is on, on your other devices) and cannot be undone. Float backs your existing list up first if you have a backup folder set, and says so; if you do not, it says that instead, which is the moment to set one.