Device Out of Sync

​@Meshell M hi there! I know this is a long reply, especially on a Friday, but hopefully, having all these troubleshooting steps in one place will help you get things sorted quickly. 

Before triggering manual syncs, I would suggest trying the first two steps: 

1. A simple reboot (power-cycle) of the device often clears temporary network connection issues or minor software glitches preventing sync. 
2. If the reboot doesn't work, ensure the issue isn't with the content itself:

• Check Playback Settings: Verify the channel schedule and playout settings for the assigned channel(s).
• Test on Other Devices: Assign the channel to a device that is currently 'In Sync'. If it fails to play or sync there too, the content may be the problem.
• Recreate Problematic Content: If you suspect a specific card or item is corrupted, recreate the card or re-upload the file and update the channel.

If the device is still out of sync after the reboot and content validation, proceed with these steps:

• Manual Trigger: Navigate to Devices in your Appspace console, select the specific device, and click the Sync Now button.
• Bulk Action: Select multiple 'Out of Sync' devices from the Devices list and choose Sync Now from the actions menu.

If a manual sync doesn't work, use these device tasks for a deeper refresh:

• Restart App: Run the Restart App device task to refresh the application.
• Redownload Content: Choose the Redownload content from Appspace task if content isn't updating properly.
• Resync Script: Use the Resync script from Appspace task to completely refresh the device's synchronization configuration.

If you are using BrightSign players, these steps are often necessary:

• Update Software: Use the App Updater tool to ensure your device firmware and Appspace App are running the latest versions.
• Network Check: Verify that your network allows the required Appspace URLs. If you aren't sure, you'll need to work with your IT team on this.

Finally, check your overall sync settings:

• If you have Auto Sync disabled, make sure your scheduled sync times are configured correctly in Device Settings > Configuration.

If the device remains out of sync after trying these extensive steps, maybe check with your IT team to confirm there are no  network connectivity or firewall restrictions that need to be addressed.

If you have difficulty with any of these troubleshooting steps, or if your devices remain 'Out of Sync' after completing all of the steps above, please submit a support ticket so our team can investigate the issue further.  We also suggest reviewing How to submit a support ticket on this page: https://community.appspace.com/p/support, to help expedite your case.

Thank you much!

Very insightful.

Late to the party, but the thing I tell my team is “Sync means nothing”.

I’ve got a device that’s “In-Sync” but offline.  

I would mention that, unless it’s been changed in the last 6 months, the manual “Sync Now” doesn’t work if the devices are set to automatically sync. You would have to ensure they’re set to manual sync first, then utilize the sync now button.

Lordtrackball is right, the manual sync does not work correctly. When I try to sync a single device, it changes the setting and syncs all of them. Resyncing doesn’t seem to work most of the time either. 

Hello ​@lordtrackball and ​@Lexie.Irish,

Thank you for your candid feedback regarding device synchronization and status indicators. We appreciate you raising these critical points. We understand the context behind your statement, "Sync means nothing," and we want to assure you we are taking all of these issues seriously.

You hit on a key point when you mention a device being "In-Sync" but "offline."

• Clarifying Status: We agree that seeing both statuses can be confusing. To be clear: "In-Sync" and "Offline" are two distinct statuses.
  • In-Sync: This means the device successfully downloaded and confirmed receipt of the latest content and scripts from the platform. It refers to the data state on the device.
  • Offline: This means the device is currently not communicating with the platform. It refers to the connection state. Offline means the device is no longer in communication with Appspace, independent of whether that device has synced content or not.
• Manual Sync Behavior: When you manually trigger a sync, it pushes new scripts to the channel. This action will cause any other device synced to that channel to temporarily go out of sync as they register the new scripts and then initiate their own sync process.
• Support ticket: If your device status on the dashboard is not matching the device's actual status, or if you are unable to get your devices back into sync or online, these are not expected behavior and a support ticket should be opened. 
• Our Goal: While we don't want to encourage the view that "Sync means nothing," we understand you are highlighting the need for a more intuitive status that accounts for both the content state and the connection state, I will raise this with our team.  We have also requested additional out-of-sync/offline troubleshooting documentation from our technical writing team.

​@Dawn Wayland my “sync means nothing mantra is really to assure the other administrators on my team that they didn’t break anything.
Almost 100% of our current deployment runs with clock-leaders and followers (‘sync’) which will throw ‘out of sync’ messages across a whole floor of devices when something seemingly irrelevant is altered.  

I don’t mean to say it’s not indicative of anything. But the nomenclature does cause it to be misconstrued as a big issue for my team. Hence the “sync means nothing”. 

Me repeating it is only to assure other users of the same thing, and that they likely didn’t break anything.

Cleaning up the terminology could certainly help!

Another good note if having issues with syncing I had issues with was using BrightSign devices; they don’t automatically update the application.

In the device task you can deploy updates to the devices as long as they are not over 6 months out of date. If that is the case, I have a lot of information to share on this topic and may start a topic.

Appspace Device App Version Lifecycle Policy – Appspace Knowledge Center