How do I share notes, highlights, bookmarks, etc. between my Mac and other devices?

To share your user-created data (notes, highlights, bookmarks, and devotional reading progress) between all your devices, you need to synchronize it with our server. PocketBible calls this "synchronizing with the Laridian Cloud”.

To manage this process, select the Cloud Sync tab in PocketBible Preferences. You can perform a one-time manual sync by selecting Sync Now. This will upload any new data on your Mac to our server and at the same time download any updates from your other devices to your Mac.

For the best performance of this feature, enable Synchronize Automatically. When this switch is on, any changes you make on your Mac will be immediately uploaded to our server for synchronization with your other devices. Then, as PocketBible needs to update its local copy of your data, it will query the server for any updates from your other devices.

You can choose a sync frequency on the Cloud Sync preference dialog. This controls how often PocketBible will check for new data that has been sync'ed to the server from your other devices. Most people don't jump back and forth between two or more devices in a single session, making changes to highlights or notes on each one, so it isn't necessary for PocketBible to constantly check for updates. So the default setting of about every hour is more than enough to keep your Mac up to date. You can change this to about every five minutes or about every five seconds if you are worried about missing something you changed on another device.

As we said, when you add a bookmark, note, or highlight, it will be uploaded to the server immediately when automatic sync is enabled. It does this regardless of the sync frequency you have selected. Sync frequency only affects how often PocketBible will check for new data that came from other devices.

It is important to note that syncing is not a "push" service. That is, when you highlight a verse on one device, it does not instantly highlight on your other devices. They will get the new highlight if you "give them a reason to". For example, if you open a new Bible or scroll to a verse that you know should be highlighted. If automatic synchronization is turned on and if the sync frequency setting allows it, the device will ask the server for anything new and will discover the new highlight at that time.