Moon+ Reader Pro WebDAV sync

[Magnus]

Has anyone got this working?

I set this up and periodically I get notifications that syncing is successful, yet when I go to the WebDAV directory, it is empty.

I'm quite stumped. Thanks for any help.

[haertig]

I use WebDAV syncing to my self-hosted NextCloud instance (NextCloud provides a WebDAV server as part of it's normal installation). It has always worked fine. I have noticed (in the past) that when I deleted a bookmark on a device, and after a while of syncing, that bookmark shows up again. I have not noticed that recently however. Maybe newer versions of Moon+ have fixed it, or newer versions of NextCloud did the fixing. It's possible the issue may still exist and I just haven't triggered it yet. I never really investigated it to know if it was a persistent or easily repeatable glitch, or just a random thing that occasionally gets triggered. But all the syncing seems to work just fine for me, ignoring that "removed bookmark glitch".

Are you syncing to your own self-hosted WebDAV server (where you might have logfiles to look at), or to a third party WebDAV instance up in the cloud somewhere?

I realize it doesn't help to hear someone say that "Well, it works for me". But I guess that at least tells you that it does work to some extent, and is not a completely failed feature in Moon+.

[Magnus]

I'm running a WebDAV docker container that is also serving Joplin and Floccus. But the directory I set up for MoonReader is empty. Today I added bookcovers to the sync and watched the screen buzz with titles, but still no content in the target directory. Tried a search for PNG files which came up empty.

Attached file shows my connect info:

Maybe this is wrongly configured. I tried without the [WebDAV] bracket, but that didn't seem to connect.

When I went to "Restore" I see the daily restores listed. Whether they have content, or merely go back to the Android tablet I use, I have no idea. Appreciate any further insights.

[haertig]

[edit]Whoa, wait a minute. After typing in all of the stuff below in this post, I am wondering if I am confusing a Moon+ WebDAV install/configuration with a KeePass (totally different application!) WebDAV install/configuration. I could very well be. This was done a while back, both applications were configured for WebDAV syncing about the same time. If I have confused Moon+ with KeePass and led you astray, I sincerely apologize. But I don't really remember which app it was.[/edit]

The "Url" and the "Path" work together. The part specified as the "Url" is (functionally) what you see as "[WEBDAV]" down in the "Path" specification.

I do remember that when I set this up in Moon+, that Moon+ initially clobbered my setup. Maybe you are seeing something similar.

On initial set up, I ONLY had a place to specify "Url", "Username" and "Password". There was no place for me to specify "Path". I don't know if this was a display glithc or what, but I remember it clearly.

So I specified the full path to my directory under the "Url" specification. It didn't work (maybe you're stuck at this same place now?) When I went back to this configuration in Moon+ to see if I had made a typo of something, I found that NOW there was a place to specify "Path". And it was populated with the tail end of the specification I had entered into "Url" earlier. BUT, that tail end that Moon+ had automatically used to populate the "Path" setting WAS STILL INCLUDED IN THE "Url" specification. So I manually deleted that tail part from the "Url" specification and left it in the "Path" specification.

The end result of my manual edit left things so the new "Url" specification (my manually edited version) concatenated with the "Path" specification that Moon+ had magically made appear later, equaled the very original full path specification that I had enter into "Url" at the very beginning.

NOW, the syncing worked!

My explanation above was probably very confusing. I'll try to illustrate it below.

What I originally did as my first configuration:

Url: https://nextcloud.my-domain.my-provider.net/remote.php/dav/files/my-name/Apps/Books
Username: blah,blah,blah
Password: blah,blah,blah

Note that above, Moon+ did not give me any option to enter a "Path". I next tried my sync, and it didn't work. So I went back to Moon+ configuration and this is what I saw:

Url: https://nextcloud.my-domain.my-provider.net/remote.php/dav/files/my-name/Apps/Books
Username: blah,blah,blah
Password: blah,blah,blah
Path: [WEBDAV]/Apps/Books

Oh look! Moon+ NOW is showing a "Path" entry (that it populated itself). That wasn't there before.
Since the syncing still didn't work, I manually edited the "Url" in the config. So after this edit, things looked like this:

Url: https://nextcloud.my-domain.my-provider.net/remote.php/dav/files/my-name
Username: blah,blah,blah
Password: blah,blah,blah
Path: [WEBDAV]/Apps/Books

Notice that the "Url" specification is now shorter after I edited it and lopped off the trailing redundant "App/Books" stuff. And the "Path" specification would be the full original "Url" specification if you interpret "[WEBDAV]" to be an ALIAS for the new "Url" entry.
NOW my syncing worked!

I hope this explanation makes sense. After you posted your screenshot of the Moon+ config, that triggered me to remember the issues I had during configuration myself. It was weird. I think Moon+ must have a bug in it's WebDAV configuration that effectively means you have to make a "two pass" configuration attempt. The first pass to enter the actual destination path, and the second pass to manually fix how Moon+ incorrectly interpreted your first pass. Sorry my post here got so long and redundant. I confused myself while typing it, so no telling how badly I confused anybody else trying to read it!

---

Note that above "nextcloud.my-domain.my-provider.net", "my-name", and "Apps/Books" are specific to me and what I did when I set up my NextCloud instance. The "remote.php/dav/file" is specific to NextCloud - that's just what it uses internally when you are accessing it's WebDav built-in server. So your entries for "Url" and "Path" will probably be totally different than mine. But you may have a similar scenario as me where you have a leading and a trailing part of the full access path, and those leading and trailing parts get split in the final "Url" and "Path" components of your specification.

[haertig]

Also, since you're using Docker, if your destination Moon+ directory where you are storing the sync data is a "bind mount" and not a "volume", make sure that the Docker containers userid has write permission on that bind mount. You can do this either by setting your UID and GID correctly when creating the Docker container, or by making the bind mount target directory mode 777 (that's wide open, you might want to be a little more discerning!) I am assuming you are using Linux for your Docker host OS. If it's Windows, well, I don't do Windows anymore and don't know the exact procedure to handle permissions issues.

[haertig]

Whoa, wait a minute. After typing in all of the above, I am wondering if I am confusing a Moon+ WebDAV install/configuration with a KeePass (totally different application!) WebDAV install/configuration. I could very well be. This was done a while back, both applications were configured for WebDAV syncing about the same time. If I have confused Moon+ with KeePass and led you astray, I sincerely apologize. But I don't really remember which app it was.

[Magnus]

I've thrown in the towel... I'm not sure I even need this feature. Followed most of what you posted and still there is no content under the WDAV path. Logging is unhelpful. I tried bypassing the reverse proxy and using IP/port values for the WDAV path and still nothing appears, although Moon Reader shows metadata transfers... but to where, LOL.

Thanks for your input. One day I'll get a Kobo for e-ink and leave Android altogether.

[haertig]

I use WebDAV to sync my Moon+ reading position between my Android phone and my Android tablet. Neither of which I use for much reading at all. They are my "emergency devices" for reading when I don't have access to my Kindle, where I do the vast majority of my reading from. My Kindle will not sync with anything, other than possibly other Kindles if I use Amazon's infrastructure. Personally, I don't do that. As a matter of fact, my Kindle is permanently in airplane mode specifically to lock out any connection to Amazon's infrastructure. Even if it were to leave airplane mode accidentally, my Kindle does not know the SSIDs/passwords to login to any WiFi network anywhere, so Amazon is still totally locked out. I only sideload books onto my Kindle.

This causes an obvious glitch for me to meaningfully sync reading positions. So what I do, time allowing, is when I finish reading to a new point on my Kindle I then open Moon+ on my phone or tablet and manually move to that new reading point. Then the WebDAV syncing copies that reading point to my other Android device (usually that is the tablet, but sometimes the tablet feeds the phone).

So mine is a half-a$$ sync, but it's better than no sync by a small bit. If I don't have time or the desire to manually update the first Android device to the new reading location, I make a point to memorize a line of text near my last reading point on the Kindle. Then I can search for that text string the next time I have to "emergency read" from one of my Android devices. Sometimes I will write down that memorized line of text in a "Notes" app on my Android device.

Syncing is a marginally useful feature for me. I would not choose devices or walled gardens based on their ability to sync.

Now, if someone would invent a way to sync audiobook positions to WebDAV and also to non-WebDAV devices like Kindles or Kobo's, regardless of manufacturer or walled garden ... THEN I might me more interested in syncing. If it was universal. But it's not, and I dare say never will be, so it probably won't ever rise above "marginally useful" for me.