Congregation Sharing is successfully used by tens of thousands of brothers worldwide every single day. If you have a data or syncing problem, this is often caused by a brother in your congregation not using Congregation Sharing correctly.
Confirm there really is a problem
How to avoid Data or Syncing problems
- Ensure all elders always promptly update to the latest version of NW Scheduler
- Correctly setup User Access
- Only edit or change data when your Congregation Sharing Status icon is Connected
- Ensure everyone is connected to the same Congregation ID and Sharing Region
- Do not edit the same type of data at the same time as another Shared Person
- Ensure all Shared Persons can successfully save data on their computer
- Ensure all Shared Persons have the correct Computer Time set
Confirm there really is a problem
Refresh the screen
When syncing data between two computers that are currently open, some data does not immediately display on the 2nd computer. Some data requires the screen to be “refreshed”.
To refresh the screen, click to another view, then click back.
- E.G. If viewing the publisher reports on one computer, while they are changed on another computer, the first computer will need to click to another person, then back to see any changes.
Or, you can close and re-open NW Scheduler to refresh the screen.
Check the Sharing Logs
Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Sharing Logs button and carefully check the Sharing Logs to see all changes made to the data in the last 14 days.
If any data has been incorrectly changed or deleted, the Sharing Logs will show who changed or deleted the data, and when.
Sharing Logs also contain a “Sharing Errors” category. Please check these logs on your computer, as well as on the computer of those with data problems.
You can then provide additional training to that brother to ensure they correctly use New World Scheduler.
How to avoid Data or Syncing problems
The following steps will help you avoid data or syncing problems, in order of importance.
Ensure all elders have updated to the latest version of NW Scheduler
If Shared Persons are using different versions, it may cause problems with Congregation Sharing. Additionally, the latest Build version contains important fixes and improvements.
All Shared Persons should please update to the latest version of NW Scheduler as soon as possible, preferably within a week.
If you have any Sharing Problems, all elders should please update to the latest Build version.
Correctly setup User Access
User Access restricts who can change or edit data, which greatly reduces the chance of sharing problems.
Ensure only persons who actually need to edit data have Edit access. Everyone else should have View or No access. This is especially true for Field Service Reports.
We strongly recommend Group Overseers have Edit access to their own Field Service Group Publisher Records only, and that only the Secretary can Edit all Publisher Records.
For example, except for the Secretary, we recommend all elders are set as:
Only edit or change data when your Congregation Sharing Status icon is Connected
Error
(Do NOT edit data)
Connected
If any brother edits data while the Sharing Status is Error, it may cause Sharing problems and data loss for other brothers, sometimes months later. If you see the Error icon, click Congregation Sharing and fix the problem, then you can edit data again.
In addition to the Congregation Sharing Status Icon, a big, red, bold warning is displayed on every single screen in New World Scheduler. Please do not ignore that warning! Please do not edit data unless you are connected.
Congregation Administrators should please train all Shared Persons to only edit or change data when your Congregation Sharing Status icon is Connected.
Ensure everyone is connected to the same Congregation ID and Sharing Region
If different brothers are connected to different Sharing Regions or different Congregation IDs, you data will not correctly share and synchronize.
Do not edit the same type of data at the same time as another Shared Person
If multiple Shared Persons are editing the same type of data at the same time, obviously this will cause data sync problems.
With proper coordination and carefully setting up User Access, this problem can be avoided.
Ensure all Shared Persons can successfully save data on their computer
If any Shared Persons have computer problems, or problems with their Windows Profile, this may cause data sync problems for other brothers.
All Shared Persons must be able to save data to their Windows User Profile AppData directory. Please see Local Settings File for more information.
Ensure all Shared Persons have the correct Computer Time set
To determine which data needs to be synced, all New World Scheduler data changes are timestamped.
If a brother sets his computer time in the future or in the past, this will result in problems with Congregation Sharing.
Verify
A Congregation Administrator should please personally verify that all Shared Persons are complying with all points under How to avoid Data or Syncing problems.
For example,
- All Shared Persons are using the latest Build version of New World Scheduler
- User Access has been correctly setup and does not allow brothers to edit data they don’t need to edit
- No one is editing or changing data when they are not connected
- All Shared Persons are connected to the correct Sharing Region and correct Congregation ID
- Shared Persons are not editing the same data type at the same time
- All Shared Persons can successfully save data to their Windows User Profile AppData folder
- All Shared Persons have the correct Computer Time set
Next, check the Sharing Logs to see any problems with the data, including who or when the data problems might have occured.
Once you have Verified everything is OK, proceed to Test.
Test
It is important to first determine and test if your Congregation Sharing is currently working correctly, before fixing any data problems.
- Make some minor test changes to the data, (e.g. update one of the Meeting Attendance figures), wait one minute, then verify changes made appear on the other Shared Persons computer.
- Do the opposite test. Ask the Shared Person to make some minor test changes to the data (e.g. update one of the Meeting Attendance figures), wait one minute, then verify changes made appear on your computer.
- Check the Sharing Logs to ensure the data changes are correctly showing in the Logs.
- If the data does not share correctly, or the Sharing Logs do not show the changes, please Contact Us and provide multiple, detailed screenshots clearly showing the problem.
- Note: You must please provide multiple, detailed screenshots of each computer performing the test data changes, as well as screenshots of the relevant Sharing Logs. Your screenshots should please clearly show the problem.
If this testing works, this means your Congregation Sharing is currently working correctly.
If needed, Fix any existing data or sync problems.
Fix
After you have Verified and Tested that Congregation Sharing is working correctly, you might still have data that is “out of sync”. This means it is showing up differently on multiple computers.
There are 3 ways to fix Sync errors, depending on how much data is out-of-sync:
Method 1: Refresh the specific data that is not syncing
This should be done if there is only a few things that haven’t synced properly.
- Change the data that is not showing up correctly
- Change it back
- Note: This will cause the data timestamp to be updated, and all Shared Persons will receive this data again
- E.G. Change a persons name and then change it back
- E.G. Change a CLM assignment to someone else, then assign it back
- E.G. Change the hours in a Publisher Report, then change it back
Pull Data
The Pull Data button causes the current Shared Data for the selected Data Type, to be downloaded to your computer, overwriting your local data.
- For example, if a brother selects Meeting Attendance Records, then clicks Pull Data, their local Meeting Attendance Records will be overwritten with the Shared Meeting Attendance Records.
If one or two brothers are missing certain data, they should each try the following:
- Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Sharing Log button
- Select the Data Type that is having problems or is out-of-sync
- E.G. CLM Assignments
- Click the Pull Data button.
- Important: You should not have to regularly do this! This should only be done on rare occasions where data is out-of-sync. If data is regularly out-of-sync, please carefully review all information on this page. If necessary, Contact Us and provide multiple, detailed screenshots clearly showing the problem
- If this does not fix the problem, then the brother with the up-to-date data should instead Push the data (see below)
Method 2: Pull or Push Data
Push Data
The Push Data button causes your current Local Data for the selected Data Type to be uploaded to the Sharing Server, overwriting the Shared Data. This new Shared Data will then be automatically transferred to all other Shared Persons in your congregation.
- For example, if a brother selects Meeting Attendance Records, then clicks Push Data, their local Meeting Attendance Records will overwrite the Shared Meeting Attendance Records and be sent to everyone else.
If many brothers are missing certain data, or Pull Data did not work, the brother who has the correct data should perform the following:
- Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Sharing Log button
- Select the Data Type that is having problems or is out-of-sync
- E.G. CLM Assignments
- Click the Push Data button
- Important: This will cause your local data to be sent to everyone else! Only do this if your data is the most up-to-date!
- Important: You should not have to regularly do this! This should only be done on rare occasions where data is out-of-sync. If data is regularly out-of-sync, please carefully review all information on this page. If necessary, Contact Us and provide multiple, detailed screenshots clearly showing the problem
- Note: You must have User Access – Edit Access for the data type you are Pushing
- The next time everyone else connects, they will automatically receive the updated data
Method 3: Re-setup Congregation Sharing
This should only be done if many Shared Persons are experiencing many sync problems.
- A Congregation Administrator, or the person with the most up-to-date data, should click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Disable Sharing
- Optionally, if no one has up-to-date data, a Congregation Administrator could first Disable Sharing and then Restore from Backup.
- He should the re-Enable Congregation Sharing, and choose a new Congregation Sharing password.
- All other persons should click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Disconnect when they first open New World Scheduler
- They should then re-connect to Congregation Sharing using the new Congregation Sharing Password.
Congregation Sharing still has problems...
As mentioned above, Congregation Sharing is successfully used by tens of thousands of brothers worldwide every single day. If you have a data or syncing problem, this is often caused by a brother in your congregation not using Congregation Sharing correctly.
In the rare case there is a problem with NW Scheduler, we will please need multiple, detailed screenshots to verify and fix. Sharing Problems identified with NW Scheduler receive priority support.
If you have followed every single step above and you still have problems, please Contact Us for additional assistance.
Important: You must please include MULTIPLE, detailed screenshots clearly showing the problem, all steps leading up to the problem, as well as screenshots of you performing EVERY SINGLE STEP ABOVE.