Purpose:
To test the backup and restore functionality of SongbookPro by clearing the database and restoring it to another device.
Assumption:
When I backup up a .SBP database, it should include all songs, related metadata, Sets and Folders. When I restore that database, the ‘contents of the destination’ should match the source 100%.
Setup:
I’ve been learning SongbookPro these past few months and passing songs back and forth. I’m starting to get tired of the sample songs and ‘Test’ set in the starter database, so let’s clear that, back it up and use the blank database as a starter for another device.
Procedure:
- In SongbookPro on the source device, go to ‘Settings | Advanced’ and scroll down to ‘Reset App’ and press ‘Delete Library‘.
- Type in SongbookPro on the line and press ‘Delete’.
- You should now have the ‘demo’ database.
- Now, delete the songs and Test set.
- You should now end up with just two folders, namely ‘All Songs’ and ‘Unassigned’. I assume that those are hard coded in SongbookPro.
- With this empty database, go to ‘Settings | Backup & Sync’ and press ‘Backup Library’.
- I named it ‘Empty.sbpbackup’ so as not to interfere with my previous production saves.
- I then transferred this empty database to my destination device (via email).
The source device had no songs, and the sets looked like this:

My destination SongbookPro device running on my Android phone already has some songs in it, however it should now be overwritten by the empty database. Once I restored the empty database onto the destination device and re-started SonbookPro, I saw this:

Initial Conclusion:
SongbookPro does NOT backup and restore to an identical state on the destination device. Further testing is required to determine exactly what sort of ‘synchronization’ that SongbookPro’s Backup and Restore functionality actually provides. If you want to clear out the sample songs and Set, you’ll have to do so MANUALLY every time you add another device or clear them.
Next Steps:
To test with more songs, Folders and Sets being added/removed. Also, duplicates should be tested as well as songs added to the destination device followed by the database being restored from the source device.
On the destination device, I:
- Created an ‘Andrew’ folder.
- Imported a song (Achy Breaky Heart).
- Added the song to the ‘Andrew’ folder.
- Restored the empty database to the destination device.
- Force closed SongbookPro and restarted it.
Here’s the results from ‘Restore’ of the empty database onto the destination device:

Conclusion:
Restore doesn’t appear to erase any data created on the destination device, and it would take significant effort to determine the exact functionality that SongbookPro’s Backup/Restore provides.
Clearly, if you want to maintain consistency between devices, you’ll need to create a very methodical workflow, or those devices will become ‘out of sync’ very quickly. That includes suing both SongbookPro’s Backup/Restore as well as Sync functionality.
Comments are closed.