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New user . . . It seems the forum limits searches so I apologize if there are threads I’ve missed. Pointers to existing threads welcome.

I am looking to possibly migrate from MacDive over to Dive Log; MacOS, iPhoneOS, and iPadOS devices with Shearwater Teric and Suunto Zoop computers.

Two primary divers and occasional friends using the Zoops. Currently about 3400 logged MacDive dives between multiple users.

I do have a couple questions …

What is the best format to use that will export/import the most details from MacDive over to the DiveLog app(s)

Is there anyway to also export/import pictures at the dive level - I wouldn’t think so but ..?

Primarily we use BT to import dives from the Terics directly to either of multiple iDevices and use the Suunto cable to import from the Zoops to a Mac.

Any users who have done such a migration - id love to hear input, caveats, major function loss and gain, and general experiences.

Thanks very much .

Okay, so this is a can of worms ! Seriously, we are happy to help. Let me get you started here, but you might also want reach out directly to us via email (support 'at' moremobilesoftware 'dot' com) with more specific question that you might have along the way.

> What is the best format to use that will export/import the most details from MacDive over to the DiveLog app(s)

As a general rule, the "best" way to import MacDive is to use one of our Mac apps (DiveLogDT - paid or DiveLogManager - free) to import the native MacDive database (use MacDive under the IMPORT section in sidebar). This will get you the most data and the highest fidelity for the profile data. However, the one catch is that profile data from Shearwater is encoded in the MacDive database in a way that we are not able to read so no Shearwater profile data will be imported (the Zoop profile data *should* work fine).

The other option is to export your MacDive data to UDDF and import the UDDF data into either Dive Log on iOS (Synchronize tab, Import -> Import UDDF format file) or DiveLogDT/DiveLogManager (UDDF under the IMPORT item in the sidebar). This will get the profile data from the Shearwater and most of the same data as you get from the direct MacDive database import.

The other thing you can do is use a combination of both. In this case you would import the MacDive database directly first and then you would import the UDDF data and "merge" the results with the existing dives you imported from the MacDive database directly. The way this works is that any information that is captured by the UDDF (like the Shearwater profiles) will update the existing entry in the logbook (that you got directly from the MacDive database). You can also use the same trick but re-import the dives directly from the Shearwater computers in Dive Log or DiveLogDT (not DiveLogManager) to update the original MacDive entries. Note that this "merging" is a manual process ... you need to make sure that the dives you select from the "source" (UDDF or Shearwater dive computer) line up one for one starting with the first dive you select in the "destination" (the dives imported from the MacDive database) as we do not attempt to match dives based on dive details in any way. Feel free to reach out via email if you need help with this ... it is a bit complicated for sure.

I should also point out that MacDive does (or did) have support for directly synchronizing with Dive Log on iOS. We shared our database format with the MacDive developer and he developed a mechanism to sync directly with Dive Log. This involves initializing a Dive Log logbook directly from MacDive (essentially MacDive creates a Dive Log logbook from its data) and then sending that to Dive Log via Wi-Fi where it replaces the existing logbook. As I recall this uses the "Sync" function in MacDive and the Synchronize tab's Wi-Fi Synchronization in Dive Log. The feature may no longer be support in MacDive and it may not transfer all data supported by both platforms.

> Is there anyway to also export/import pictures at the dive level - I wouldn’t think so but ..?

You are correct. This information can not be captured in Dive Log or DiveLogDT. There are ways to capture images Dive Log, but not "per dive" in the way MacDive supports

> Primarily we use BT to import dives from the Terics directly to either of multiple iDevices and use the Suunto cable to import from the Zoops to a Mac.

Both Dive Log on iOS and DiveLogDT support downloading the Teric via BT. It is not possible to support the USB/serial computers like the Zoop directly on iOS (if you happen to have access to the now discontinued DCbuddy it is possible to download the Zoop to Dive Log on iOS but this would be unlikely these days) so you would be limited to downloading the Zoop using DiveLogDT. Of course, Dive Log and DiveLogDT can sync data.

> Any users who have done such a migration - id love to hear input, caveats, major function loss and gain, and general experiences.

We are the developers of Dive Log and DiveLogDT so I'll leave it to others to comment on the experience of migrating from MacDive to our products. However there are a few things to be aware of.

First, not all MacDive data is supported by Dive Log/DiveLogDT (see per dive images above) and visa versa however most of the fields that users need are supported.

Second, MacDive and Dive Log/DiveLogDT take a different approach to supporting multiple divers. In MacDive you can have multiple diver's dives captured in a single database and (if I remember correctly) you can use "virtual logbook" to view them per diver. Dive Log and DiveLogDT use separate logbooks for each diver. In the case of DiveLogDT these are separate files in the file system. In DiveLog they are handled by using different "active logbooks" (which can be managed in the Settings app). The key is that if you import your full MacDive logbook into a single logbook in Dive Log or DiveLogDT you will have no way to identify individual divers. So you may want to leverage MacDive's virtual logbook feature and export just the UDDF data for each user independently (I'm not really familiar with using MacDive so I'm waving my hands here).

Moving between different logbook applications that are not explicitly designed to work together is always a difficult proposition. We are happy to help in any ways that we can. However, MacDive is also a great product and will certainly understand if you decide to stick with it. If you want to get a flavor for the conversion process without making any purchase, DiveLogManager (Mac App Store) is free and can import from both UDDF and the native MacDive database.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,

Greg

Gregg…. Thanks so much for the excellent response and information. It confirms much of which I am finding on the MacOS ‘free” version I am playing with as an introduction to the app, the imports, etc. I will continue to explore the options and send over an email if needed as well as pickup hints and information from the Forum.

Gregg. One simple question on imports, ok two.

Since our MacDive database, with our use case, has multiple divers, I guess I’ll have to separate the file for imports for each diver/user.

Also, do any of the import methods/formats include buddies? I’ve tried several (MacDive 2.0 and UDDF) but they did not appear to move over buddies at the dive level.

I hope to spend more time later in the week playing with imports to minimize problems/missing data.

Hi,

> Since our MacDive database, with our use case, has multiple divers, I guess I’ll have to separate the file for imports for each diver/user.

Yes, that would be my suggestion. If you can tell easily which dives belong to which diver from the summary in the top panel of the import section then you can select individual dives to import (both the shift-click and command-click standard macOS selections options work to select discontiguous ranges of dives) and import them into the current logbook file. This *might* be the only option for import the MacDive sql file (unless you can generate multiple sql files using the virtual logbook feature in some way). Exporting just the dives for each diver into UDDF *should* be possible in MacDive I would think and this would certainly be faster than individually selecting dives during import.

> Also, do any of the import methods/formats include buddies? I’ve tried several (MacDive 2.0 and UDDF) but they did not appear to move over buddies at the dive level.

Buddies should be supported by all methods. I just tested a MacDive UDDF import that had a buddy and it was imported correctly. It might be our user interface that make it hard to see as DiveLogManager does not have all the "tabs" to view the details of a dive that you will get with DiveLogDT. In DiveLogManager you need to click the "Buddies" button in the top section of the dives display to see the Buddies assigned to that dive. You can also see all the Buddies that have been imported across all dives by selecting "Buddies" in the sidebar under "LOGBOOK" (this list is created as we import the individual Buddies from a dive, so if the Buddy is shown there it will be at least one of the dives you imported).

If you are still not seeing the Buddies, feel free to send us (via email) a UDDF or MacDive logbook file and we'll be happy to check what is happening (UDDF is a very hard format to get right and we have already had to add a number of features to our importer to support ways that MacDive writes UDDF which does not meet the spec .... trust me, they are not alone! The MacDive database format is one that we have to reverse engineer and it can change out from under us, so it is always possible that what worked last month does not this month).

Cheers,

Greg