Android Download Database Tutorial

Reason for Separate iBird Database

As most of our customers that have updated iBird Pro for Android know, the last update brought the app into conformance with our iOS iPhone/iPad app. In one way, it leaped ahead of iOS in that for Android iBird we decoupled the database from the app. Why is this better to have the app and DB separated rather than merged into one giant download? There are two main reasons. First this allows the app to be very small and allows us to stream the species data to each species account. Streaming means you can immediately begin using the app (using the internet) without having to download the database. Second, this allows the database to be installed in either your Internal memory or your external SD Card. Using your SD Card means more of your faster internal memory will be available for programs.

Download Database

To use iBird in the field, where you have no Internet, you will want do download the database and install it either in your devices Internal or External (SD Card) storage area. SD Card Storage is preferred as it leaves room for more apps to be run from the faster Android internal memory. To download the database, go to the Navigation menu by tapping the "hamburger" menu on the top left corner (the one with 3 horizontal bars). This will take you to the screen below.

 

Figure 1 - Navigation Menu

Next select the Download Database menu (outlined in green above). This will take you to the Download Database screen (below). Here you must first sign into one of your Google accounts. (For questions about permissions iBird requires, see the Article iBird Permissions.) To do this tap the blue text "Sign in".

Figure 2 - The Download Database screen - note the progress bar is just a sample image

Once you have signed into your Google account you can now download the iBird database to one of the two storage locations indicated at the bottom of this screen. You may pick Internal Storage or SD Card. To direct the database to download to one of these locations simply tap the button.

To follow the progress of the database download pull down from the top of your device to reveal the Notification Center.

  

Figure 3 - How to pull down to reveal Android's Notification Center - this is where the database progress bar will appear

Once you have selected the storage area and started your database download you will need to wait until the progress bar reaches 100% which means is it complete.

NOTE: In older versions of the Android OS the progress bar may occasionally disappear right after it starts. Don't panic; just wait a few minutes and it will reappear. Also it might not start for a few minutes; again be patient and it will eventually show progress.

Using “Mount Downloaded Database” on Android

The Mount Downloaded Database is a new feature found on the Navigation-->More screen. You can use this menu to manually download an iBird database from our server. To use this feature please send a ticket to iBird via the ticket system at ibird.zendesk.com. Explain what you problem is and ask for the recent name of the iBird Pro database so you can use this feature to manually download it. If you want to store the database on the SD Card you'll need a copy of ES File Explorer or a similar app to move it from where Android stores it after downloading to the SD Card.

Figure 4 - The Mount Downloaded Database is on the More screen

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