Yarn Diary

Google Drive sync

What the permission covers

Connecting asks Google for the drive.file permission — the narrowest Drive scope there is. It lets the app see and edit only files it created itself. Your documents, photos and every other folder in Drive remain invisible to it. The privacy page covers this in full.

What lives in your Drive

A folder named Yarn Diary, containing:

• One JSON file per project, named after the project — readable with any text editor, so your data is never trapped in a format only this app understands.
• Your photos as ordinary image files.
• A small bookkeeping file that records deletions, so a project you delete on one device doesn't resurrect from another.

When syncing happens

You don't manage it. While connected, the app syncs when it starts, a few seconds after you save a change, when you return to the tab, when the connection comes back, and every few minutes in between. "Sync now" on the Data screen exists for impatience and for troubleshooting, not because it's needed. If two devices edited the same project, the versions are merged with a firm bias: losing work is worse than keeping too much. Rounds ticked on either device stay ticked (each copy of a part merges separately), newer text wins per field rather than per project, and an edit made after a deletion beats the deletion — deleting never silently discards newer work.

Signing in again

You shouldn't have to. Connecting signs this device in once, in a small Google window, and grants it a sign-in that renews itself: the short-lived token Google gives browsers lapses roughly hourly, and the app quietly trades a renewal token for a fresh one through a small Yarn Diary sign-in helper — the one piece of the app that is not a static page. It stores nothing and never sees your projects; the privacy page describes it in full.

If renewal ever stops working — you revoked the app's access from your Google account, or this device connected back when sign-ins could not renew themselves — your next tap in the app opens Google's window once to set things right, and it won't ask again for ten minutes if you dismiss it (the Data screen's sync button always works immediately). Your local work is completely unaffected throughout — sync being paused never blocks crocheting.

Disconnecting

"Disconnect" on the Data screen forgets the sign-in on this device and stops syncing. Nothing is deleted anywhere: local projects stay on the device, and the Yarn Diary folder stays in your Drive. To remove the Drive copy too, delete that folder in Google Drive; to withdraw the app's permission entirely, revoke it at your Google account permissions page.

If sync seems stuck

• "Sign-in needs renewing" — the app has no silent way to renew, usually because access was revoked from the Google account. Your next tap in the app opens the sign-in once, or tap sync to do it right away.
• A clock warning — sync compares timestamps between devices, so if this device's clock is minutes wrong, tapping "Sync now" shows a message asking you to fix the clock. Set the clock to automatic and the warning goes.
• "Google is rate-limiting this app" — wait a little; the next automatic sync usually succeeds.
• Drive full — sync tells you; free space in Google Drive and it resumes.
• Anything stranger: write in with what the Data screen shows.