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I love Dive Log and Divinglog6.0! I think I finally have gotten every shred of information about all my dives input perfectly.

I have the DivingLog6.0 application data currently as my "Master Data" and I have "synced" it to the ios Dive Log app. I use "synced" in quotations because it honestly looks like more of a 1-way push from DivingLog to ios Dive Log where the entire database appears to be replaced in the process. But, I am happy that currently both places seem to have the same data now.

My concern is: ios Dive Log appears to be missing some database information points when compared to DivingLog6.0. For example, DivingLog6.0 shows PPO2 graph whereas ios Dive Log does not. Another example is "Shops" section of DivingLog 6.0 has pictures whereas ios Dive Log does not. There are a few other examples, like the actual profile data, which I assume is actually present in the ios Dive Log somewhere but is not presented to the user. I am concerned on future dives, if I send dives using bluetooth from my Perdix AI to ios Dive Log, and then Sync from ios Dive log to DivingLog6.0, will it affect my perfect DivingLog6.0 database which has different/more fields than what is shown in ios Dive Log? I guess I'm worried about overwriting the information in DivingLog6.0 database that I so painstakingly put in all of those database fields.

Question 1: Will "syncing" future dives from the ios Dive Log to DivingLog6.0 affect my DivingLog6.0 database in unfavorable ways? (i.e. will it discard, or overwrite, database values it doesn't understand because they are not present in ios Dive Log?)
Question 2: Is there an advantage of capturing my dive computer data between
A) Shearwater Perdix AI --> ios Dive Log --> DivingLog6.0
--OR--
B) Shearwater Perdix AI --> Shearwater Desktop --> DivingLog6.0

It seems to me that Option A is the most desireable from my perspective as a user, but I want to make sure I wouldn't be missing any data points if I do option A that would have been present in option B...

Thanks,

Hi,

First, thanks for asking!

You are right that the "sync" from Diving Log 6.0 to Dive Log on iOS was simply a push of the logbook data on Diving Log 6.0 to Dive Log and that it completely replaced the data in Dive Log when you tapped on the "Use new Logbook" button. The "sync" model is that all the heavy lifting is done on the desktop and Dive Log on iOS just sends or receives it's logbook to/from the desktop where the actual sync takes place. So to fully "sync" with Diving Log 6.0 you would take the following steps:

1) Sync "From" the iPhone/iPad to the desktop
2) Sync "to" the iPhone/iPad from the desktop

This will integrate any change from the iPhone/iPad withe any changes on the desktop and then upload the resulting logbook back to the iPhone/iPad.

There are a couple of things to note here. The "sync" takes place at a "record level" (a record is a "dive" or a "dive site" or an "equipment" item). So if you make changes to the same record on both the iPhone/iPad and the desktop "between" syncs then only the record that was modified most recently will survive and it will be in the form that it was at the time it was edited. You can freely change different records between syncs. Also, while the "sync" work is always done on the desktop in the case of Wi-Fi syncing, Dive Log on iOS's iCloud sync does the actual sync itself. When we first developed Dive Log and Diving Log 6.0 it was a lot to ask of the iPhone to do the work of syncing but iPhone's and iPad's are much more powerful now and they can certainly handle the work load now.

When you sync from the desktop to the iPhone/iPad (or the other way for that matter) all your data is transferred. There is 100% data fidelity between Dive Log and dIving Log 6.0. That said, there is some data that Dive Log can not edit or display (for example the PPO2 graph). The data is all there, it is just not displayed (yet in some cases). Dive Log is fully aware of all the tables and fields in the logbook database and any manipulation of those records while within Dive Log will preserve the data entered on the PC.

One good example of this is the "per dive" photos that you may have entered. Diving Log 6.0 stores the actual path to these photos on your PC (i.e. C:My Photos....). Obviously, Dive Log on iPhone does not have access to these photos. However, it is aware of the data in the logbook and will ensure that the relevant path will still be in place when you "sync" your data back to the PC and Diving Log 6.0 will indeed show that photo again.

So the simple answer to question 1 is "no, you can safely edit your logbook on iOS and then sync it back to Diving Log 6.0 without loosing any data". With that said, please remember to keep backups of your data. Diving Log 6.0 does make a backup before any sync from the iPhone/iPad to the PC but keeping backups of data that you are sensitive about is always prudent!

Regarding your second question, "Option A" is your best option. Dive Log captures all the data that the Dive Log/Diving Log 6.0 database format is capable of storing. So if you download your Perdix AI with Dive Log on iOS and then sync that data to Diving Log 6.0 you should have as much fidelity in that data as is possible with our shared database format.

With that said, I have not extensively used the Diving Log 6.0 support for importing from the Shearwater Desktop so it is possible that you could find a field that is available from that process that we don't capture in Dive Log's Perdix AI downloader (if so, please let me know and we'll make sure we add it to Dive Log's Perdix AI downloader). However, in general it is more reliable to import from the raw data straight to a file format rather than having to deal with possible loss of precision that can occur from converting the data twice (once from the raw data to the Shearwater Desktop format and then a second time from the Shearwater Desktop format to the Dive Log/Diving Log 6.0 format).

I hope that helps. Please feel free to send along additional questions you might have and please let us know of any issues you encounter and we will address them as quickly as possible.

Cheers,

Greg

Thank you, I think that answers things very clearly.

It is good to know that ios Dive Log holds the same exact database fields as DivingLog6.0, even if some of those fields are not used/shown in the app. That was really the basis of my concern.

The bluetooth sync from the Perdix AI to ios Dive Log appears to have all the data intact, but to be safe I will just also sync the Perdix AI to the Shearwater Desktop in case I ever need the data in the future.

Thanks for the quick clarification!