With Apple's new iOS 4.0 and iTunes 9.2, a new feature called iTunes File Sharing provides a second method for backing up your critical application files for apps that support the feature. Chronic Pain Tracker supports this feature starting with the 2.4.15 release. [update: Chronic Pain Tracker Lite supports this feature starting with v2.5.4]
To use the feature, you connect your device to your Mac/PC running iTunes. Under the "Apps" tab in iTunes, you'll see all the apps stored on your device. In the lower portion of the screen, you will see the File Sharing section. Any apps on the device that support File Sharing will be listed here. Simply click on the app icon and the box to the right will show all files in the app's Documents directory.
Pain Tracker Application Files
When using this feature with Chronic Pain Tracker, you will see several critical files including:
- ChronicPainTracker.sqlite - this is the main database for the Pain Tracker application
- Exports - this is the exports directory which includes all PDF, CSV and XML report outputs
- medList - this is a plist formatted file which contains the list of medications available in Pain Tracker
- painDescriptionsML.plist - this is a multi-lingual plist file containing the choices for pain descriptions
You may see other files in the list depending on whether or not you have had older versions of Pain Tracker installed. The above files are critical to the operation of Pain Tracker and should not be removed.
Backing up application files
Backing up critical application files is easy. Click on the Pain Tracker icon, and the relevant files will be shown in the box to the right. No, select all the files and folders and click on the "Save To" button. Select a location on your local PC/Mac and the files will be transferred. Note: Its good practice to first create a new folder and name it in such a way as you can tell the date of backup (eg. "20110315_PainTrackerBackup").
Restoring application files
Restoring files to the device is just as easy. First, click on the application icon in the left box. Then click on the "Add" button and locate the backup folder on your local PC/Mac. Select all the files in the backup folder and click "OK". The files will be transferred over to your device. Now, just restart the Pain Tracker application and you should be good to go.