iPad cable causes sync timeout

AnkiMobile (iPhone/iPad) Help
1

Took me a while to pin this down, and it still seems surprising.

But consistently, synchronize on the iPad times out when connected to a laptop. Unplug and try again and it works.

2

I canā€™t reproduce this. You might want to check your network settings, as it may be switching networks when you connect your phone.

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3

Iā€™ll check that. We only have two WiFi sources, 2.4 MHz & 5 MHz. Would be an Apple bug if it switches like that. But no other apps have shown this behavior. Appleā€™s own apps (iCloud and their store occasionally have connection issues when everything else works, but those outages arenā€™t related to plugging in.

4

Itā€™s not necessarily a bug. IIRC, the iPhone can be configured to act as a USB network adaptor for tethering. If it was using your 4G, maybe your 4G provider doesnā€™t support syncing with AnkiWeb?

5

Itā€™s an iPad without cell radios; WiFi only. So itā€™s not a matter of tethering. And if it were a limitation of the cell provider, it would happen all the time. I just tried again: Connected to the 2.4MHz channel, opened Anki and tapped synchronize. Timed out. Unplugged cable, tapped synchronize, and it did so immediately. Looked at settings and it was still on the 2.4MHz channel.

And the laptop was asleep through the entire test.

This was also happening months ago with different versions of everything: network - Temporary connectivity failure on iPad - Ask Different

6

Do you have internet sharing enabled in the Sharing section of your computerā€™s preferences?

7

No internet sharing. Tried that long ago on a different Mac, but it didnā€™t work. Could be some sort of defect in our equipment, considering you havenā€™t heard of it from others.

8

Hmmm. Seems Apple at one time added ā€œContent Cachingā€ to ā€œimprove internet speed.ā€ It defaults to ON, and having it on also turns on internet sharing. However, when I turned both off, the odd behavior continued. In response to some one elseā€™s question, I looked at the settings for that SSID on the iPad, and netstat -rn on the laptop. Neither one changed when the cable was unplugged.

9

Ok, Iā€™m out of ideas Iā€™m afraid.

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10

Yeah, I think itā€™s Appleā€™s problem. I filed a bug report.

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