Last week we had a quiet release that we forgot to mention here on the blog, an important update to Strip for Windows. This version includes our Dropbox Sync feature, making it possible to sync your Strip data via Dropbox to iOS, OS X, and Windows.

Full change-log:

• New Feature – Synchronize Strip desktop with Dropbox!
• New Feature – New application toolbar for quick access to application functions
• New Feature – Support field reordering via drag-n-drop move handle
• Improvement – Improved integrity check command finds and fixes improper field indexes
• Improvement – Double click non-url fields to switch entry into edit mode
• Improvement – Proper centering and alignment of modal dialogs
• Bug Fix – Allow export of data sets containing empty field values
• Bug Fix – Installer now shows proper program name instead of random string

If you have any questions or feedback, please get in touch.

We released Strip 1.6.1 to the iTunes App Store and then pulled it from the store a few hours later yesterday due to confirmed reports of a bug preventing our customers on iOS 5 from accessing their data after successfully signing into the application. It’s that bug scenario you always fear as a developer with the App Store—something that you simply must fix right away, but can’t due to the app review process. We have already submitted a fix to Apple as version 1.6.2 and requested expedited review due to the circumstances.

We pulled the update to make that sure no one else gets bitten, and as a result Strip is currently not showing up in the iTunes App Store. There’s unfortunately no way for us to rollback a version update once it’s on your device.

We know this is a horrible inconvenience, but our recommended option is to wait for the forthcoming App Store update because it is the safest and lowest-impact fix. However, if this is not an option there are two other potential courses of action:

1. Sign up for our TestFlight beta service. If you become a beta tester for Strip we can send you a new version before it hits the app store. However, this process involves a sign-up and registration of your device. You can sign up and register devices here: http://tflig.ht/nxGEhq
2. Restore from backup using iTunes. As long as you haven’t synced your device since the update was installed, you should be able to restore from backup. Unfortunately this would erase any data from Strip and other applications that was not in the last backup. If you are think you might need to do this please don’t sync your phone with iTunes, as it could overwrite your last backup. This should be a last resort due to the potential for data loss.

We’re really very sorry about the problems this has caused – we are doing our best to get this fixed as soon as possible.

Since the availability of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, many of our customers are upgrading to new iPhones (in particular, it would seem, the 3Gs users!) and are running into trouble because they often find that after the upgrade and after iTunes supposedly copies their data, data from their old device is not there, including Strip data. Stephen Lombardo, chief here at Zetetic, has put together the following upgrade advice for our customers. -Billy Gray

The easiest and most reliable way to migrate data from one device to another is to use one of Strip’s sync and backup features. Here are the backup and restore options:

Option 1: Desktop backup / restore

Strip has two desktop application that support syncing. The first, Strip Desktop, is a full editing environment with a backup facility. The second, Strip Sync, is a free utility you can install on your computer that just supports backup and restore. Both are available for download from getstrip.com.

In either case, you’ll want to start by installing one of the programs and syncing your old device with your computer. You can do this by running the desktop program, then switching to the Sync tab on the device, locating the computer to sync with, and running the basic sync operation (do not use Restore or Overwrite for this).

Once you have a solid backup of your data on your computer, the restore process to the new phone should be quite easy:

1. Download Strip onto your new device. Run the program the first time and be sure to use the same password you used on your old phone and for Strip / Strip Sync on the desktop.
2. Run strip / strip sync on the desktop and log in with your password.
3. Back on your phone move to the sync tab.
4. Choose computer and find your desktop in the list
5. For Sync Operation type chose “Restore from Desktop”, with the the icon that shows the arrow pointing from the computer to the phone (This will overwrite the local database on the iPhone with a copy from the computer)
6. Tap Sync and agree with the warning that says you’ll overwrite your device data from the desktop
7. Once it’s compete you’ll have a complete copy of your Strip data on your new phone

Option 2: Dropbox backup / restore

The latest version of Strip in the App Store supports backup and sync with Dropbox. If you are a Dropbox user, or don’t mind signing up, you can perform the backup and restore with it’s cloud data service. JUst make sure you are running the latest version of Strip on both your devices. Then, on your old device, initiate a backup to Dropbox on the Sync tab.

Once that is complete, you can restore it to your new device.

1. Run Strip on your new Device, and be sure to use the same password you used on your old phone
2. After logging in on your new device, move to the sync tab.
3. Change the Mode to Dropbox and link to your account.
4. For Sync Operation type chose “Restore from Desktop”, with the the icon that shows the arrow pointing from the computer to the phone (This will overwrite the local database on the iPhone with a copy from the computer)
5. Tap Sync and agree with the warning that says you’ll overwrite your device data from the desktop

Option 3: iTunes backup / restore

If you really don’t want to use option 1 or 2, then it should still possible to use iTunes to restore your last backup from your old device onto the new device. I want to mention that this option is not recommended, because some users have reported data loss during iTunes sync and restore.

1. Make sure your iPhone is not connected to your computer
2. Open iTunes, go into Preferences –> Devices and make sure that “Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically” is checked off.
3. Now connect your iPhone to your computer.
4. Open up iTunes and in the devices list on the left side panel of iTunes, right-click or control-click your device.
5. Select ‘Restore from Backup…’ If you are offered the option to choose a backup, you’ll want to choose the newest one.
6. After the restore, log in and test the restore
7. If the restore worked, uncheck “Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically”

Please let us know how you fare with the conversion in the comments or send us an email.

Today is a big day for us, as we’re releasing two application updates for Strip, introducing our support for Dropbox as a sync and replication target.

Strip for OS X 1.2.0

Strip for OS X got a lot of bug fixes and minor adjustments to go along with the new Dropbox sync feature. Here’s the change list:

• Dropbox Sync integration (menu: Sync –> Sync with Dropbox)
• Integrity Check added for recovering orphaned records (menu: File –> Integrity Check…)
• Fix: After deleting selected category or entry, display not updated correctly
• Fix: Sorting disabled on Customize Labels panel
• Fix: Fields of varying height drawn over each other, obscuring data
• Add drag-and-drop field re-ordering on an entry
• Add copy-and-paste for entries! (useful for templating entries)
• Drag-and-drop entries into another category
• Ready for OS X Lion
• Last Sync label not populated on Get Info / Database Information panel
• Add Replica GUID and Replica CSN to Database Information
• Add “Export as Strip CSV” option to Export so users can also export to plain CSV if needed
• Fix crashes in Export due to empty field values
• Fix crash on Import

Get the latest version of Strip for OS X from the Mac App Store.

Strip for iOS 1.6.0

Changes in this version:

• Dropbox Sync integration
• More adjustments for better landscape-orientation support (login screen rotates!)
• Ends support for iOS 3.1.3, requires iOS 4.0 or greater
• Minor memory leak in database connection manager eliminated

Note that with Strip for iOS 1.6.0 we are requiring our customers to have iOS 4.0 or greater installed on their devices. We realize this will be painful for a small number of some of our customers, but it’s important that we prepare the Strip platform to adopt new technologies in iOS 4 and iOS 5 while shedding the weight of deprecated APIs. Being that iPhone 3G devices and later support iOS 4, and that these all appear to run more efficiently with iOS 4, this new platform requirement shouldn’t keep many from upgrading, and will allow us to develop Strip more quickly in the future. We have big changes planned for the future, and we expect we’ll be requiring iOS 5 once we get around to releasing Strip 2.0.

Get the latest version of Strip for iOS from the iTunes App Store.

Strip for Windows 1.2.0: Coming Soon!

Strip for Windows 1.2.0, which will provide support for Dropbox sync as well, is in the works and on the way. Stay tuned for updates!

A thing that is confusing some new customers of Strip is that replicating your data is not something that iTunes will accomplish when you sync your device. You can’t simply sync two iPhones with Strip to the same copy of iTunes in order to get the data on the two exchanged. Instead you have to avail yourself of sync features we’ve built into the apps, and they can be used in several scenarios, which we’ll discuss below.

Background

When we originally published Strip for iOS in 2008 (then it was iPhoneOS), it was stand-alone software which presented two pressing problems. The only option for backing up your data was to use the iTunes backup feature while keeping your fingers crossed, and there was no way to share or replicate your Strip database with another device (e.g. have your passwords on both your iPhone and your iPod Touch or iPad). We needed to solve these problems before we’d have the chance to build a full desktop port for Mac and Windows, so we created the free utility Strip Sync as our backup and replication solution. In the time that’s passed we’ve finished our ports of Strip for Windows and OS X, and they will eventually replace Strip Sync, which will be discontinued. Strip for Windows and OS X handles data replication in exactly the same way as Strip Sync, so we will only refer to Strip in the rest of this article.

Please note: copies of Strip that you wish to keep in sync must share the same password.

Desktop WiFi

Desktop WiFi sync is controlled by the mobile devices connecting to the desktop. All you should need to do on the desktop side is log in to Strip and leave the app running, it will advertise the sync service on your local WiFi network and await connections. With Strip running on your desktop, you initiate sync by launching Strip on your iOS device, selecting your computer on the sync screen, and tapping a button to start the operation.

These are the basic steps:

• Launch Strip on your desktop and login, leave it running
• Launch Strip for iOS on your iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad
• Tap on the sync tab
• Make sure Operation is set to Sync (not Overwrite or Restore)
• Make sure mode is set to Desktop WiFi
• Tap the Computer setting
• Select your desktop from the list of computers
• Tap the Start Sync button

When you sync, you are not simply creating a backup (although the effect with the initial sync is similar to a backup), you are creating and maintaining a replica of your data. All changes on your iPhone are sent to the desktop, and all changes known to the desktop are passed to the iPhone. You can then initiate the same process from another iOS device (e.g. iPad) and the process is repeated—changes from both the desktop and your iPhone are passed to the iPad, and changes from the iPad are sent back to the desktop.

The network connection itself is a simple, unencrypted TCP connection. The encrypted database files are exchanged over this connection after successful completion of HMAC authentication.

It’s important to use the basic, default sync operation, which exchanges all changes on each end of the sync. Overwrite and Restore operations are available, but they should be used rarely, only for restoring lost or corrupted copies of Strip. When a device is over-written, any changes local to that device are lost.

Our sync service is a network-based one, it assumes the user has a WiFi network, and that both the mobile device(s) and the desktop computer are on that same network and can communicate freely. While this works for the large majority of our customers, it is unfortunately not always the case with a lot of home networking setups. There exists such a plethora of networking devices and configurations that it’s impossible for us to recommend settings that will always work. If you end up having trouble, do get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to help you adjust things as necessary. Meanwhile, we’re working on providing new means of sync to do an end-run around home networking, such as the Dropbox Sync covered below.

Dropbox Sync

Starting with Strip for OS X 1.2.0 and Strip for iOS 1.6.0, support for sync via Dropbox is available. On the first sync to Dropbox, Strip creates an encrypted replica of your data and stores it in your Dropbox account. No encrypted data is stored in plain-text or decrypted in your Dropbox account. On every subsequent attempt to sync, Strip downloads a copy of the encrypted replica, exchanges all changes between the replica and your local database, and then replaces the copy out on Dropbox with the updated replica.

These are the basic steps to sync with Dropbox in Strip for iOS:

• Launch Strip for iOS on your iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad
• Tap on the sync tab
• Set the Operation row to “Sync”, Not Overwrite or Restore!
• Set the Mode row to “Dropbox”
• Tap on the Account row to sign in to your Dropbox account
• Tap the Start Sync button

Similar to WiFi sync, the replica on Dropbox serves as an intermediary between your devices, including the desktop. In direct contrast to our WiFi/Network sync above, you don’t need Strip on your desktop to keep your iOS devices in sync. In addition, if you are thwarted by home networking troubles, you’ll find Dropbox sync a breeze. This is because almost all modern routers and firewalls allow your computer to initiate unfettered connections to remote machines on the Internet over HTTPS.

Syncing with Dropbox for Strip for OS X is quite easy:

• Launch Strip on your Mac and log in
• Go to the Sync menu and select “Sync with Dropbox” (Shift+Command+D)

Note: Sync with Dropbox requires that your various instances of Strip share the same password. Strip uses HTTPS to communicate with Dropbox over the Dropbox API, it does not make any unencrypted connections to Dropbox.