FAQ: Exporting to iPhone, iPod Touch

Can I view my collection on my iPhone or iPod Touch?

Yes you can!

The Music, Movie, Book, Comic and Game iPhone applications let you view and browse your collection on your iPhone or iPod Touch, including the cover images.

A lot more information (features, screenshots) can be found right here.

Where is the Export to iPhone button?

As described in the App Store where you can buy the Collectorz.com iPhone and iPod Touch applications, you need the PRO edition of your program. Like all exporting features, this one also only works in the PRO edition.

I have the standard edition how can I upgrade to PRO?

If you have the PRO edition, and you see several export options like Export to iPod, but not Export to iPhone and iPod Touch, this indicates you have an older version.

Click on "Help > Check for Update" to make sure you have the latest version!

How do I export my collection to my iPhone?

Exporting to iPhone or iPod Touch device
If you are unable to figure out how to export to iPhone or iPod Touch, please follow these steps to find out why. We will call it iPhone from this point on, but it the information is for both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Basic export instructions
First, you need a Wi-Fi connection on your iPhone or iPod Touch, connecting to the same local network (LAN) that your Windows PC or Mac OS X computer is in.
Plus, you need to have Apple's Bonjour service installed (comes free with iTunes) (Mac users: you probably already have this installed).
You can not transfer data using your standard iPhone cable, Apple does not allow 3rd party developers to use that cable.
Then just follow these simple steps:

In the iPhone app, go to the Import page. This will make your app visible on the Wi-Fi network
Now start your Collector program on your computer and choose Export to iPhone.
Wait until it detects your iPhone app.
Click the Export button.
That's it. The Collector program will export your data and transfer it to your iPhone or iTouch.

I don't see "Export to iPhone or iPod Touch"?
Click on File | Export to | iPhone or iPod Touch to start exporting. If all you see is "Export to iPod" then you are on an older version.

For Windows, you will need the latest version of the software which will have a new "Export to iPhone" screen:

For Movie Collector, you will need version 6.2 PRO*
For Book Collector, you will need version 6.2 PRO*
For Music Collector, you will need version 8.6 PRO*
For Game Collector, you will need version 3.2 PRO*
For Comic Collector, you will need version 4.4 PRO*

For the Mac apps you need the latest versions too:

For Movie Collector, you will need version 3.0 PRO*
For Book Collector, you will need version 3.1 PRO*
For Music Collector, you will need version 3.1 PRO*

*or higher

I have the latest version but I still do not see the Export option?
You are on a Standard version. Like all other export options, you need the PRO edition to actually export. Click here to find out how to upgrade to PRO.

I'm getting errors exporting to iPhone
Please scroll down to find the troubleshooter.

Problems exporting collection to iPhone / iPod Touch

Exporting to iPhone or iPod Touch device
If you are experiencing troubles exporting to iPhone or iPod Touch, please follow these steps to find out why. We will call it iPhone from this point on, but it the information is for both iPhone and iPod Touch. If you want to know basic instructions on how to export, click here.

Troubleshooter
Please answer the following questions to find out what's causing the problem with exporting your collection to your iPhone. The solutions you need to check out after answering the questions can be found below.

Q1: Do you see your iPhone?
Yes: Continue to Q2
No: Read Solution 1: Wifi and Solution 2: Bonjour

Q2: Does the export stop at 40%?
Yes: Continue to Q3
No: Continue to Q4

Q3: Can you export one item from your collection? (Try several single items)
Yes: Read Solution 3: Unstable WiFi Connection
No: Read Solution 4: Firewall

Q4: Can you export one item from your collection? (Try several single items)
Yes: Continue to Q5
No: Read Solution 4: Firewall

Q5: Can you export your entire collection without images?
Yes: You have an invalid image in one or more of your items.
No: You have invalid data in one or more of your items.

Solution 1: WiFi
First, make sure that your iPhone has a WiFi connection. You can do so in your iPhone settings. Your iPhone has to be connected to the same network as your computer.

On Mac computers, simply switching on your WiFi may not always do the trick! If you are connecting to the internet through a cable, and never used your WiFi for internet, your Mac is probably not connecting to a wireless router (which it should!). The connection between our iPhone application and your Mac is done through the network, not through a direct WiFi connection to your Mac. You need that wireless router present.

Now open the correct iPhone application and make sure you have tapped "Import". Your iPhone will tell you if your device is on a WiFi network.

On Windows computers, clicking refresh on your PC will show search for your device again.
On Mac computers, the refreshing is happening constantly until it finds a suitable device.

When you are sure your iPhone is indeed connected to a WiFi network, but you can't find your iPhone with the program, it could be that the iPhone is not connected to the same network as the computer you have your Collectorz program on. So the iPhone is searching for a connection to your program on a different network than your computer is trying to find the iPhone on.

To solve this, you need to go to your settings (in your iPhone), and check the WiFi settings. See if you can find other networks to connect to, and connect. If you have the right WiFi network, it will accept the connection (e.g. your Collectorz program will find your iPhone).

If that doesn't work (e.g. you don't see other networks in your WiFi iPhone settings), things will become a bit trickier to solve. Apparently your WiFi router is creating two networks: one for WiFi devices (iPhone), and one for Wired devices (your PC). We don't know how your router works, but you need to get into the router settings, and then try to find a way to combine the WiFi network with the Wired network. It can be done, because that should be a default setting on your router (someone has changed it to 2 different networks working next to each other but not with each other).

You may need to contact the manufacturer of your Wireless Router for this.

We also advice you to read Solution 5: Pinging your device.

Solution 2: Bonjour
on Windows you may not have installed Bonjour from Apple correctly. Bonjour is a small piece of software that gets installed when you install iTunes, and helps your computer to communicate easily over Wi-Fi with your iPhone. It is a free program.

You can find a separate download for Bonjour (Windows) on the Apple website.

If you want to check if Bonjour is installed correctly click here.

Solution 3: Unstable WiFi Connection
Your computer can not connect, or keep a steady connection to your iPhone (after a few minutes your iPhone could become idle and disable its WiFi: Go to your iPhone preferences screen on your iPhone and in "General" switch off "Auto Lock").

Solution 4: Firewall
Now we can be sure it's not an Apple Bonjour issue.

If your collection only exports 40% (or any percentage lower than 100%) of the database and then fails, or you're getting a socket error, you may have a firewall problem.

For 90 percent of all failing iPhone cases, a Firewall or Router is blocking the connection. Both your PC version of the program and Bonjour should be allowed by your firewalls. Please check this really carefully.

Try switching off all firewalls, and be sure not to forget the Windows firewall. Also disable Windows Defender if you are on Vista. Now try to export your complete database. If that doesn't work:
Try exporting only one item of your database and see if that works. If not:
Click File > Open Database, and open the Example Collection. Try exporting the Example Collection to your iPhone. Doesn't work?
Reboot Windows into safe mode with networking options and try steps 1, 2 and 3 again.

Solution 5: Pinging Your Device
This is actually more of a suggestion than a solution, but it could help you 'see' where the problem is, and what you need to change. By pinging your iPhone or iPod Touch you can see to which network and through which gate they are trying to find eachother.

You do not need to try this if you are able to see your device when the program tries to find your device.

IP Address & Subnet mask of the iPhone or iPod

On your iPhone or iPod go to Settings
Choose Wi-Fi
There you see your network with a check in front of it, tap on the blue arrow on the right
On this screen you see your IP Address and the subnet Mask of your device.

IP Address & Subnet mask of the computer

On your computer, press Windows Key + R (Or go to start, choose run)
Typ "cmd /k ipconfig /all"
On this screen you see your IP Address and the subnet Mask of your computer

Before we continue: The IP address of your device and computer should almost be the same. Your IP address will connsist of 4 groups of numbers. Example:

Computer IP address: 192.168.1.102
iPhone IP address: 192.168.1.108

As long as the first 3 groups of numbers (in this case "192.168.1") are the same, you can assume you are on the same network. If this is not the case, your iPhone is on a different network than your computer! You should fix this first. Let's move on.

Reachability Test

On your computer, press Windows Key + R (Or go to start, choose run)
Type "cmd /k ping [REPLACE THIS WITH THE IP ADDRESS OF YOUR IPHONE]"

Now (after a little while) you will see a bit of text that says "Packets: Sent, Received, Lost".

Look really carefully at the numbers after "Sent", "Received" and "Lost":

Sent and Received are the same number: Connection is good. You should have no problem exporting your database.
Sent and Lost are the same number: No connection AT all to your device. Did you compare the IP address of your Iphone and PC as described above?
Sent and Received have a different number, and a few are lost: Your WiFi connection is NOT optimal to your device. Read Solution 3

How to delete the example db from my iPhone / iPod Touch?

The example database will be cleared right away once you export to your iPhone/iPod Touch. The application overwrites your current database on the iPhone/iPod Touch everytime you export from your computer and import on your device.

Can I export more than one database?

It's only possible to have one database on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
What you can do as a workaround, is merge the separate databases and then export to iPhone.

The steps to do this:

1. Start a new database and save as: Merged Databases
2. Click File > Import from > Other database
3. Select Database 1
4. Repeat for databases 2 and 3 and so on
5. Export this merged collection to iPhone

When you've updated one of the databases, repeat above from step one.
You can create a new database and remove the old one or overwrite the existing merged one.

Extra special TIP: If you want to search the separate databases on your iPhone/iTouch include the database name in the Genre field. For example: you have three separate Book Collector databases for your Hobby, Fiction and Computing books. When you add this database name to the Genre field, you can select this database on your iPhone and only browse this part of your collection.

We have no plans for importing more databases into one iPhone application because we always recommend only using one database in our software. Use the Search and Filter options to only see parts of your collection.

How do I get my collection data transferred to the iPhone/iPod Touch app?

First, you need a Wi-Fi connection on your iPhone or iPod Touch, connecting to the same local network (LAN) that your Windows PC or Mac OS X computer is in.
Plus, you need to have Apple's Bonjour service installed (comes free with iTunes).
You can not transfer data using your standard iPhone cable, Apple does not allow 3rd party developers to use that cable. Then just follow these simple steps:

In the iPhone app, go to the Import page. This will make your app visible on the Wi-Fi network
Now start your Collector program and choose Export to iPhone.
Wait until it detects your iPhone app.
Click the Export button.
That's it. The data will be exported and transfered to your iPhone or iTouch.

How do I edit data on my iPhone/iPod Touch?

This is not possible. The iPhone/iPod Touch apps are viewer apps only, they don't have any data editing features.

I have a huge collection, will the app and my device be able to handle it?

On average, 1,000 items with cover images take up about 30 Mb of memory.

The apps can handle large collections. Starting the app will be a bit slower with large collections, but acceptable. We have tested with collections containing over 8,000 items and this worked great.

For larger collections the Export to iPhone process will be slower, because it has to generate cover images that nicely fit the iPhone screen.

Transferring the data to the iPhone over Wi-Fi is very fast, so that won't be a problem.

Can I export field [...] to my iPhone/iPod Touch?

It's not possible to define which field you actually export to your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you would like to make a request for a field we would appreciate it if you do it on our forum. Registering is free and easy, and who knows, if a lot of people agree with your idea - we may implement it.