NOTE: We are no longer adding new features to Set List Maker. We recommend our newer product, BandHelper, for the latest design and functionality.
Sharing databases between devices
If you want to manage your set lists from multiple devices, or if you want to collaborate on set list management with your bandmates, you can export your database and import it into another device. Read on for more details:
- On the database you want to export from, open the database, then click the export/import button in the top toolbar:
. Then choose one of these options to copy the database to other devices:
- Click Export Database to save your database file to a cloud storage location. You could save your file to a local folder, but then you would have to move that to your other devices yourself, and you would not have a backup if your device is lost or damaged.
- Alternatively, you can click Email Database to email your database file to the address you enter. An emailed database requires more steps to import, so is only recommended if you don't use any cloud storage services, or need to send the file to bandmates who don't share a cloud storage service with you.
- On the device you want to import to, open the database you want to update. You can create a new database the first time, then use the same database for subsequent imports. Then click the export/import button in the top toolbar and choose one of these options to import the file into the current database:
- If you exported your database, click Import Database, and select the file from whatever cloud storage or local folder you saved it to.
- If you emailed your database, you can open the email message, click the attachment and save it to a cloud storage location or a local folder. Then open Set List Maker and use the Import Database button to select the file from that location. On iOS, you could use the Share option in the email message to send the file directly to Set List Maker, but this can fail for various reasons depending on your iOS version. Also, you must have Set List Maker already running, with the correct database selected, before doing this.
Here are some notes about how the export/import process works:
- You should not save your database into the Set List Maker data folder if you intend to delete and reinstall the app. That folder will be deleted when you delete the app.
- You can export as often as you like, and save the exported files as backups. Each exported filename includes the database name and the export date and time for easy archiving.
- You should not rename the exported files, because the app looks for the info within the filename when importing. If you want to organize your exported files other than by name and date, you can group them into folders.
- When you import a database, your current database will be overwritten by the imported file. There is no way to merge differences between your current database and the imported file. There is also no way to undo the import. Set List Maker will show you the database name, source device and date in a confirmation message before importing, to make sure you are importing the right file.
- The exported file contains all your songs, set lists MIDI presets and document metadata. It does not contain your database settings or layouts. You can export and import settings and layouts separately. For settings, you can use the Export Settings, Email Settings and Import Settings buttons as with databases. For layouts, see the "Sharing Layouts" section in the layouts tutorial.
If you've attached documents or recordings to your songs, the exported database file will not contain these documents or recordings, but will contain metadata about them (like document orientation or recording volume) and links to them (one link for iOS devices and one for Android devices). This means you would only have to link your documents to your songs once on each platform, but you will need to copy the documents and recordings themselves to each device. Basically, whatever method you used to put these files onto your first device, you can repeat on the other devices. Here are some options:
- On iOS, you can connect your devices to your computer with a USB cable, then copy files to or from the devices using iOS file sharing. This allows you to copy multiple files at once, and makes it easy to keep a master copy of all your files on your computer in case your device is lost or broken.
- On iOS or Android, you can copy your files to a file sharing service like Dropbox, then copy them from there to the app's data folder. This allows you to copy multiple files at once, and makes it easy to keep a master copy of all your files in the cloud in case your device is lost or broken.
- On iOS or Android, you can copy individual files into the app's data folder by saving an email attachment or using AirDrop (iOS) or Nearby Share (Android).
- Or you can switch to BandHelper, which syncs all your database data and attached documents and recordings automatically, with cloud-based backups, and with options for band members to add personalized versions of some data.
