What is Location Synchronization?

WEB iOS

Many photographers enjoy planning their next photo shoot at home, using desktop PCs and larger monitors to carefully research their locations. Photo Ephemeris has always offered a web app version ideally suited to this task. But in today’s world, its important to be able to carry all that information with you on your mobile devices with the minimum of effort.

Location Sync provides a quick and easy means to keep all your photo locations available across all your devices – desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile. Plan your locations using Photo Ephemeris Web on your desktop or laptop computer, then sync them to your phone and tablet for when you’re on the road.

Benefits

• Make the same locations available across multiple devices
• Securely back-up your saved locations to your account in the cloud, rather than your browser cache
• Avoid the need for manual import/export and management of different versions and duplicates
• Saved locations include timezone and elevation data for accurate sun/moon data when offline

Availability

• TPE Desktop Web App
• TPE 3.2 for iOS or later

How it works

If you haven't already, create a free Crookneck Photo Apps account via Photo Ephemeris Web or TPE for iOS. This account will allow us to so associate your saved locations with you.

In Photo Ephemeris Web locations are automatically synchronized to the cloud, but can be triggered manually.

Then, after signing in to your new account, synchronize your saved locations by clicking the Synchronize button. If you have Photo Ephemeris locations saved across multiple computers or devices, you’ll need to sign in to your account and synchronize from each one.

The first time you synchronize your locations, the locations are associated with your account and a cloud symbol is displayed alongside each location.

When synchronizing, it is important to remember that only the most recently edited copy of a saved location is retained. The time and sequence of synchronizations do not matter: it is the time of the edits that counts. The most recent change always wins.

Example:

• You have a location, London, synced to both a desktop and laptop
• You edit the desktop London location at 12:10 by moving the pin and updating the location
• You edit the laptop London location at 12:20 by adding some notes (the red pin is still at the original location)
• You sync the laptop
• You sync the desktop
• Even though you synced the desktop after the laptop, the sync will retain the laptop version because its edits are the more recent
• The desktop edits are discarded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete my account?

At this time, an account is required to use Photo Ephemeris Web. However, you may choose to delete your account if you no longer use the service. Sign in to your account and click the name shown next to ‘Signed in as…’. Re-enter your password and click the red Delete my account button to delete your account. Your saved locations and account profile are deleted, but your saved locations are not removed from the local machine.

An account is not required to use TPE for iOS and you may delete your account from within the app.

What does it cost?

Nothing - it's free of charge.

How many locations may I synchronize?

Photo Ephemeris Web allows users to save 1,000 locations and synchronize them to TPE for iOS. Because there is a monthly cost to providing the service and to storing data we have a limit of 1,000 to avoid unreasonable use of the service that might result in unexpectedly high operating costs or poor performance for other users.

TPE for iOS has a limit of 10,000 saved locations.

What happens to my information when I sign up for a Crookneck Photo Apps account?

The account profile information you supply to us is stored in our database. Your password is encrypted and cannot be viewed by us. Locations you synchronize are stored in our database. All communications between your browser and the Location Synchronization Service are encrypted using HTTPS. Please read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for more details.

What is the Service Level for Location Sync?

We do not offer any guaranteed service level, such as availability, time to restoration, or response times. However, we have every incentive to provide a reliable service that performs well.

I accidentally cleared my browser cache. How do I retrieve my saved locations?

Just go to the Locations page, log into your Crookneck Photo Apps account and hit Synchronize!

I have the Android version of TPE. Can I sync my locations?

At this time, Location Sync is not available on TPE for Android.

A note on Locations: Cleaning vs Deleting

Clean saved locations

Clean saved locations removes all saved locations from the local machine, but any synchronized locations remain safe in your account.

This function also resets (clears) the record of the time you last synchronized and therefore allows for a clean re-sync.

Use case example:

• You have 43 saved locations that have been previously synced to your account
• You import a KML file with 200 locations that you decide you don’t want
• Rather than going down the list deleting individual locations, you use Clean saved locations to delete all locations from the local machine
• Clicking the synchronize button now re-synchronizes your account: the 43 saved locations are restored to your browser.

Delete saved locations

Locations can be deleted individually, via the locations page in both Photo Ephemeris Web and TPE for iOS. There is not an option for bulk deleting saved locations.

Remember to regularly back up your locations as KML files: export your locations as a KML file and save it somewhere safe. If you accidentally delete locations from your machine and your account you can import the KML files to restore them and re-sync to your account.