I purchased the year ad free sync pro for $16.99 the day it launched. I wanted to support what seemed to be a great app for a new platform even though that was an excessively steep price.

At this point I wish I hadn’t wasted my money.

After the last app update every time I opened the app it would crash. I attempted to clear the cache, clear the data, then reinstall the app. It would crash every time I tried to restore my backup. I reached out to the developer first and told them my issue. They initially replied back and said they would look into it and I provided extra information. Went several days with no update and I attempted to contact them again and got no response. I then asked for a refund because it doesn’t recognize that I purchased the Pro upgrade. Again no reply. I then tried to get a refund through Google and also no luck and that I should contact the developer.

I will never again purchase sync pro for lemmy or any other platform and I would caution anyone else from spending an arm and a leg for this app when there are plenty of equally good alternatives.

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    I had this issue with that particular setting, and since it was part of my backup I couldn’t restore it as-is.

    If you feel comfortable enough modifying the backup file, search for hide_username and set to false. You’ll be able to restore your backup until that feature is fixed.

  • Zess@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    The dude is known to disappear from time to time. I think a couple times his app even got removed from the play store because he failed to renew something on time.

    • misery mansion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      1 year ago

      That was due to Google IIRC. I think the thing a lot of people don’t really get, is that this app is made by a small team (believe just one person with some general adhoc help).

      It’s a fantastic content browsing experience with a ton of features. It might not be sustainable still given the small user numbers on Lemmy. I don’t know.

      This user seems to have an edge case that is probably a lower priority. Doesn’t seem to require the PSA really. Obviously no bugs would be great but that’s not really how software works unfortunately.

      • Whiskey_iicarus@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        63·
        1 year ago

        Again, not a troubleshooting thread. The “PSA” was that I spent $17 on an app and no longer have access to that service. I can’t access the features of sync pro. I contacted the developer to either fix my problem or when they couldn’t do that get a refund. I paid for a year and didn’t even get 6 months of use.

  • foo@lemmy.caEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    This is not my comment from the Play store, it’s from another Sync user having a similar issue:

    If you have hide username set in the newest update, the app crashes immediately for whatever reason. I was able to edit my backup file to set that to "false", clear app storage, sign back in, and restore the edited backup file.

    Play store link: Sync for Lemmy

      • eggymachusEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Isn’t that an option when you reinstall? To reinstate purchases?

          • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Did you have more than one Google account on your phone? It could be that it’s trying to restore the purchase from another account than the one it was purchased from.

                • Whiskey_iicarus@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
                  2·
                  1 year ago

                  I don’t have any problem showing proof I have purchased Sync Pro.

                  I attempted to request support first and received a quick initial reply about my problem. Never got an update so I requested a refund in the same email chain and still haven’t heard back. I then went through the Google Play refund process and they said they won’t refund me either.

                  So I’m just out my money. No big deal, and I moved on. I just posted so if someone was looking into paying what I think is a ridiculous price for a year of ad free and some features, there was some good feedback.

  • aodhsishaj@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Weird, I haven’t been able to replicate this with my account. I corrupted my local db and the app crashed. Then I cleared local app data and cache and reinstalled. When i logged in it recognized my paid status and I was able to import my corrupted db, then it crashed. I then restored to my uncorrupted backup and all was well again.

    Have you exported your local backup to a desktop computer? BeaverDB is pretty good at repairing corrupted DBs.

    • Whiskey_iicarus@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      56·
      1 year ago

      I have not exported it. That also seems like a lot of extra work when I paid $16.99 for an app. I used RiF for years without an issue and I only paid $2.99 once

      • aodhsishaj@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        It would help others if you did. Just because the main developer will not help you doesn’t mean the community cannot/will not.

        • Whiskey_iicarus@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          32·
          1 year ago

          I certainly don’t disagree that it might help someone else.

          This post wasn’t meant to try and troubleshoot though. I attempted to go through the developer and Google to get something fixed and neither helped so I made a public post in the community to try and make others aware that they may not get what they paid for or support to fix issues.

  • Copernican@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    1 year ago

    It’s December. Give him a little bit of slack for the holiday month. A lot of people try to take a week or two off. He pushed an update right after Thanksgiving.

    Personally, I recommend avoiding pushing releases during holidays if you know post launch support releases might be low, but it would probably lead to criticism of him not updating enough.

    • Whiskey_iicarus@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      51·
      1 year ago

      I did give him some slack. I emailed him dec 11 and he answered back immediately for several replies. I gave him a week for the troubleshooting with no reply, and then I gave him 5 days after I emailed for a refund with no reply before I ever posted on here. I don’t understand why people are so defensive. I wasn’t bashing the guy or anything, I’m more upset that I’m out $17 than not being able to use an app that is nothing special in a sea of apps.