You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!

You're welcome, Bill! Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thanks David ! Very helpful!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

You're welcome!!

Great to hear!

Glad it helped!

Thanks!

Yep. Any way you get files around will work. If it’s small enough, you can email it to yourself. Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. are all ok.

Thanks for watching. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "mirror copy". The process I described in this video should exactly duplicate your entire library, all your scores, annotations, setlists, etc. will be transfered to the new device. Worth noting: that is making a separate copy. They aren't connected. So if you make an edit or add a score on the new device, the old device will not be updated. If that's your goal, you should turn on forScore Sync. Start by doing this on your _old_ device that has all your data. Go to the Toolbox > Sync > Sync with iCloud. Tell forScore to replace the cloud data. Then wait for that initial sync to iCloud to happen (could be a few minutes or maybe closer to 30 min if you have a large library and/or slow Internet connection). After that is complete do the same thing on your destination iPad. This time, when you turn on Sync with iCloud, tell it to replace the _local_ data. Once that sync is done, you'll have a complete copy of your whole library on both devices, and as long as you keep the "Sync with iCloud" toggled on, any changes you make on one device will be copied to the other device any time your device is online.

@@DavidMacDonald Your instructions worked! Thank you! By mirror copy I meant that I wanted changes made on the larger iPad to show up on the Mini. I now see with sync turned on, the reverse is also true…and changes take place more or less immediately, similar to changes in a Contact record. I haven’t looked in the User Guide to see what “Reset sync data” does, but it doesn’t sound like I’d need it. A related menu item, “Storage > Do not backup,” is a bit mysterious, but the prompt says turning it on is not recommended, so I won’t turn it on. Thank you again!

Thanks for watching! When you import into forScore, your files are converted to a forScore format. They're not PDFs anymore (though you can get PDFs back out again if you need to). If you're doing a transfer, don't change any extensions.

Thanks for watching. You’re right that you can transfer the file to another device in between, but I still don’t think I would trust the transfer without having the original device to go back to if something goes wrong. If your MacBook is on OS 11.0 or higher (Big Sur), you can install forScore from the App Store to make sure the Archive file was created correctly and can be opened on another device.

I don’t think there’s a great reason to keep more then the most recent one or two backups.

Thanks for watching! It sounds like something has gone wrong! I would try again and make sure you give the iPad plenty of time. It may help to do this while plugged in to power, leave forScore open in the foreground, and don't use the iPad for anything else while it's working. If that doesn't do the trick, you may want to contact forScore support for help.

Thanks for watching! I think it should _add_ those to your existing library, but if you're worried, you can always make an archive backup of your own library first.

@@DavidMacDonald Thanks!

@@DavidMacDonald Thanks. That worked and saved me a huge amount of time and effort.

Thanks for watching! Depending on the devices you're working with, AirDrop can be a little fussy. You might try another method of getting the archive file to your new device, maybe Dropbox or Google Drive would work?

Hi Marianne. This transfer method will work pretty much the same way on the Mac as it does on iPads. The only other way to achieve this would be if you're a forScore Pro subscriber, you can turn on cloud sync'ing, which is what I currently do to keep my Mac and iPad libraries up-to-date. To do this in forScore, go to Tools (the icon in the top right) > Settings > forScore Pro > Manage Subscription to either buy or verify that you have previously purchased it. If you have purchased the subscription on any device, you can tap "Restore Subscription" to have it recognized on your current device. To set up sync, on your first device that has all your scores and metadata, go to Tools > Sync and turn on Sync with iCloud. The first time you do this on your first device, select "Prefer Device Versions". WAIT FOR THE FIRST SYNC TO COMPLETE! Then, on your second device, turn on sync and select "Prefer iCloud Versions". Once the initial sync is done you can hop back and forth between Mac and iPad as frequently as you like, and any new scores or annotations you make will show up in both places.

Hi John. Thanks for watching. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think there’s a way to bulk-export PDFs so you can use them in another application.

@@DavidMacDonald OK thanks David.

Yes. Nothing happens to the library on the source device. And since this video was published, you can now sync your library automatically to iCloud, which makes switching devices pretty easy.

Yes! You would just select that location when performing the restore on the other device.

You can put the archive on any form of storage. Most people probably don't regularly connect thumb drives to their iPads, but it's very possible. I have a USB-C thumb drive for exactly this purpose. When you create the archive and are offered to "Share" it to another application, select the Files app, and your thumb drive should be in the list of locations there.

Yes. forScore is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Thanks for watching, Len! You could definitely use this to get your bandmates started, but it's really not intended to be a a sync solution. I would recommend doing this once and then adding each new score and setlist separately. Otherwise, any changes or markings that your bandmates make (reminders to themselves, for example) would get wiped out the next time you update their libraries. If sharing and collaboration are important to you, I don't know if forScore is the best option. There's another great app called Newzik that has much more robust sharing and collaboration features, including some tools to do pretty much exactly what you're describing here. newzik.com/en/app/

@@DavidMacDonald thanks for the reply. I understand about the sync. But it’s just a duo group and I control the scores. We actually just use pdf cord lyric sheets so we are not to complicated. I just want to make sure when I make the copy to airdrop on my other iPad I am not losing it on the host iPad. My understanding from your video is that is not an issue. Can you just confirm that before I do it.

Correct! This process just makes a copy. No data is removed from the source device.

Yep! Once you make the archive file, it's no longer connected to forScore. Deleting it won't have any affect on your active library.

Thanks for watching! I _think_ that should merge the libraries, but I’m not completely sure. If you want to try it, make an archive backup of both devices, so if it goes wrong you can get back to your previous state.

@@DavidMacDonald that’s exactly what I had in mind. Thanks!

This is the question I have been interested in for a long time. And there is no answer to it anywhere.

@@Oleg__ i did to mine, and it just added the new scores from my old ipad.

@@SamDeuda Thanks! Good to know. I wonder if the backup Archive contains scores that have the same Titles as those already on the iPad, whether they will be overwritten or simply get a number at the end of the title. I think the latter version.

@@Oleg__ i do think that none of the old scores got over written, Maybe I’m wrong but in my case I can’t be bothered since it’s worth 10 gb of files that i need to transfer.

Honestly, I think that is so unlikely that it’s not worth worrying about.

@@DavidMacDonald in the meantime, I actually figured out how to do it if anybody’s interested. just go to your library and click on all scores . Then click share, and you can choose from PDF or annotated .PDFs. Takes a few minutes and then it asks you what folder you want to put them in!

What do you mean by “mixed up”? Is it possible you’re just sorting them differently in the new device?

I mean that some solo music (from the solo library) gets in the quintet library and some of the the Christmas music is now in the trio library…the libraries names are all in the new IPad but the music appears randomly in different libraries now. 🤦‍♀️😩 I wonder if it has anything to do with an update that I have not done or something.

Did you have multiple folder/libraries in the main library? I have a folder for trio music, piano solo, Reg pad, quartet, duos, marches….could it be that it doesn’t really transfer all the libraries the way they were organized?

@@anniebilodeau6374 I have about eight or ten libraries and they all came over ok. You should definitely contact forScore support about it. Having said that, since I made this tutorial, there is a new Sync feature that is probably even easier. Just turn it on for the source device, wait a bit for it to upload to iCloud, and then turn it on for the destination device.

@@DavidMacDonald ok now it works!!!! So awesome! But…(argh) my forscore doesn’t stay open and closes after a few seconds being open.

No. If you’re signed in to the same Apple ID on both devices, the subscription transfers automatically. If you’re not seeing Pro features, go to the Pro section of settings and tap “Restore Purchases”

if you have a USB drive that can plug into an iPad, do all the things in the video to make an _archive_ backup, and when it asks where you want to put it, select the Files app, and you should see your USB drive as a location there.