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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
MyTime has not been updated in 3 years, is this still maintained?
The development of MyTime has not stopped. Sadly apple has removed APIs that MyTime uses for sorting and search which is requiring me to rewrite a good portion of the main user interface for MyTime and it is taking a long time to do this. Also along the way I have had added responsibilities that have sadly taken most of my free time away to work on MyTime.
The Field service hours have been updated as of 2023, when are you going to update MyTime?
It has been updated in the development version. Sadly apple has removed APIs that MyTime uses for sorting and search which is requiring me to rewrite a good portion of the main user interface for MyTime and it is taking a long time to do this. Also along the way I have had added responsibilities that have sadly taken most of my free time away to work on MyTime.
MyTime keeps crashing on startup, when will this be fixed?
I have not seen this happen personally and anyone that has sent me an email on it has not been able to help me get the needed information from the device to debug the problem. I really wish I could get to the bottom of it because a small percentage of people are constantly affected by this. I wonder if turning off the iCloud backup would help or not, I am willing to have conversations with someone willing to assist in trying different scenarios to figure out what this is related to.
The field service hours goals are wrong, can you fix it?
Sorry for the confusion. If you are a pioneer (and have set MyTime->More->Settings->Publisher Type-> to pioneer). Then it will calculate your monthly goal based on your average hours per month to accomplish your yearly goal. 70 hours a month is an average if you meet 70 hours per month, but if you achieved more than 70 hours in previous months then future months only have to have less than 70 hours per month on average to achieve the yearly goal, conversely if you were only able to meet 60 hours in previous months then the average hours needed per month to meet the yearly goal would be more than 70.
If you have LDC credits: MyTime calculates the LDC credits based on the branch recommendations which have recently changed from being able to increase your hours that count towards the yearly goal from 70 hours to 75 hours per month. So for instance if you got 60 hours in a month and then did 50 hours LDC, only 15 hours of those LDC hours count as credits, the rest do not carry over to the next month.
These LDC hours are taken into account with the monthly goal as well as the service year (you can see in the service year how many LDC hours contribute as credits based on the note below them). So your monthly goal just will reflect how many more hours to achieve a monthly average which will get you to the goal you signed up for which was the yearly 840 goal (if you started in the middle of the service year, mytime will take that into account as well).
How can I import data from Field Service Assistant on the iPhone?
Field Service Assistant stores your calls in the iPhone's contacts list. MyTime can import these contacts if you go to MyTime->More->Settings->Import Contacts. You select the Contacts group that is associated with your Field Service Assistant program.
How can I import data from Ministry Assistant android program?
Emails from MyTime are not being received, what gives?
Most of the time that there is an issue with the emails that MyTime generates it has to do with the mail application or settings for the mail account that might have changed.
- Please check to see that you can email yourself an email from the "Mail" application. If you have more than one email account, please make sure that you are sending your test email from your Settings App->Mail Contacts & Calendars->Default Account-> The default account is the one that all applications use when they are asking iOS to email something.
- If you can receive the email that you sent your self, then check the "Outbox" to see if the MyTime emails are stuck there. Open the "Mail" app, tap on the back button to get back to the account or mail folders and check to see if there is an "outbox" or anything stuck in the outbox.
- If test email works, and you do not have anything waiting in the outbox, please try to email me a call or your email backup from MyTime->More->Settings->Email Backup->Email MyTime Backup to toopriddy@gmail.com and we can see what is going on.
There is not a lot I can go with email on iOS, MyTime actually does not email anything. MyTime tells iOS what to show in the email sheet and then it is up to the Mail app to actually send the email.
How do I sync my iPhone and iPad MyTime data?
Currently there is no good way to sync your data between any iDevices. What you can do is use the Email backup feature to email your data between devices. To restore your data from your iPhone to your iPad you go to MyTime™->More->Settings->Email Backup->Email MyTime™ Backup to your email account setup on your iPad. Then on your iPad you open up the email you sent and press on the attached file and then select that you want to open it in MyTime (THIS WILL DELETE ALL MYTIME DATA FROM YOUR IPAD AND RESTORE ONLY WHAT WAS ON YOUR IPHONE). If you edit anything on the iPad you will need to follow the same procedure to "restore" the data back to your iPhone. This is NOT a sync of data but rather a transfer of data. This is very human error prone (as in user error, not MyTime™ errors) and you can only edit data on one device at a time. Please use this procedure at your own risk.
How do I make a bible study not a bible study anymore?
I am very sorry I do not have a great way to handle this right now. There is no way currently to say that a study is no longer a study anymore without having to do something silly (which i will describe for you if you want to use it). I will be adding something soon to make it where you can turn them off as a study.
To filter out calls who are not studies:
- Go to the call who is no longer a study.
- press "Edit"
- press "Add Additional Information"
- Press "Edit"
- scroll down to the bottom and press on "Add Custom Information"
- Type in at the top "Canceled Study" or something descriptive that would show that the person has not canceled their study (this switch would be on for people who are initial calls too for the purpose of this silly workaround right now)
- Scroll down and select "YES/NO Switch"
- then turn the "Default Value" to off
- Press "Done" at the top
- press and hold drag control on your "Canceled Study" entry you just added (the drag control is those 3 horizontal parallel lines on the right) and then drag the entery to the very top of the view under the "Information Always Shown" section
- Press "Done"
- Press the back button to get back to the call.
- switch the switch "Canceled Study" to ON for this call that is no longer a study
- Press "Done" to quit editing this call
- Press the back button to get back to the calls
- go to the "Sorted By..." tab
- press the top left button to change the sort filter.
- press the "Edit" button
- Press on "Studies"
- Press on "Add Filter Rule"
- Press on "Additional Information"
- You are now back at the filters list that has a "Additional Information" entry, press on this
- Press "Add Filter Rule" to add a filter rule for additional information on the studies
- Press on "Canceled Study" to add this to your filter list
- Press on "Canceled Study" to edit the filter rule
- Turn the "Canceled Study" to off.
- Press "Done"
- Press "Done"
- You are now looking at the new filter rules for the "Studies" which are "look for all calls which are not deleted AND have one visit type that is a study type AND the Not Canceled Study switch is ON"
- Press "Done"
- Press "Done"
- Press "Studies"
You should now be looking at the list of studies and if you want to stop a call from showing up in the studies view you just change the "Canceled Study" to ON.
How do I change the language in MyTime™?
You don't change the language in MyTime™, you change the language of your iphone. From the Home screen, go to *Settings -> General -> Internationalization -> Language* and change the language there.
How do I restore a backup and get MyTime™ back?!?
Here are options whatever your situation:
If you cant find MyTime™ on your device, then try pressing the home button until the spotlight search window shows, and then type in MyTime™. Sometimes if there are too many applications installed some applications will not show up on the home screen, you can use folders to group things to get more icons or just delete apps not used anymore. If MyTime™ does not show up in the spotlight search then most likely you have deleted the application from off of the iphone :(
You can go to Settings->General->Restrictions-> and enable restrictions and then turn off the ability to delete applications (many people have had their kids accidentally delete MyTime™ and this restriction helps to prevent this).
iCloud Backup
If you have used iCloud to backup your applications and MyTime™, then go to the Settings application->iCloud->Storage & Backup-> and follow the procedure for restoring a backup, each time you did a backup is dated so you should be able to restore an appropriate date when you had the records.
iTunes Backup
If you have been plugging your device into your computer regularly and you are not using iCloud then your iTunes on your computer has been backing up your device. You can plug your device into your computer, tell iTunes to cancel the backup it is trying to do currently and then right click your iPhone from the left side of the iTunes window (you have to go to View->Show Side Bar to expose the side bar if it is not already) and then right click your iPhone and select "restore from backup" and then when it asks select the backup that is closest to the day that you know you had your information.
iTunes Backup #2
go to https://code.google.com/p/mytime/wiki/iTunesBackup on the mytime website and follow the instructions for retrieving the backup MyTime™ data file
Email Backup
If you have sent yourself an email backup, then try retriving that email backup and then tapping on the attached file on the email, this will open MyTime™ and ask if you want to restore the backup
I have loads of free time and am very detailed about things and I want to help with beta testing, what do I do?
Before a version is released to Apple, I release several versions to the testers and translators to verify that things are OK before releasing to the masses. If you have the ability to quickly run through things within 1 or 2 days of sending out a testing build then you would be able to help with testing, if you are not able to get to the testing quickly then I appreciate your efforts but there are only so many slots for testing that I can give out. If you can be a tester, Send me your apple ID and I can add you to the beta testers list.
I want to help with the translation work, what do I do?
Why are you asking for donations?
I have received three (as of 3/17/2012) nasty emails (out of the thousands of "thanks") over the last eight years like "If your a brother, It might not be appropriate to ask for money unless you are going to send it to the world wide work fund... Pray about it" and I want to make sure that people understand why I put a donation button in the program. First, I was asked by many people to have some way of being able to donate to me since I have spent countless hours writing this software and they recognized the effort that I put in this program. Writing and publishing an application on the iTunes !AppStore is also not cheap; you have to pay yearly subscriptions just to even have the program show up on the !AppStore, even if it is free. The cost, out of my pocket, of doing development is well over what I have received and will receive in donations, I am not making money for this program at all. Based on the society's direction in the Kingdom Ministry about this subject it seems like I am doing nothing wrong by principle, I am not selling the society's literature and I am not asking for money or doing business at the Kingdom Hall. I consider it like helping pay for gas in a car group when someone else drives. Another good example someone else brought up was if you had a lawn cutting or cleaning business you would not cut lawns or clean for all 300,000 MyTime™ users for free every year would you? We would also not want to presume to expect someone in the congregation to do something like that for us for free... This program is free and you can donate if you like.
I want to start developing a program for the iPhone, what should I do?
Why are you not working faster to get feature X out?
Well I am doing this for free... and in my free time. I have responsibilities in the congregation and a wife and daughter that I don't want to alienate, so I don't have a lot of free time in the first place. This is a hobby and it is fun to work on when I can (I usually do something on it at least once a week). Don't hesitate to mention feature requests that are not already in the list above or in the [http://code.google.com/p/mytime/wiki/Wishlist Wishlist] in the wiki pages.
I just clicked on "Enable Popups" and I cant get the popups to go away! I hate popups!
The popups are enabled to show just once. There are 3 or 4 popups that are scattered through MyTime™ and only show once for each unique popup. I dont like popups either but they helped to lessen the amount of email I get for common questions. So you disable the popups by viewing them :)
Why dont you store the data on a webserver or have MyTime™ be a webapp since I could use it on any smartphone or computer?
I thought about this before writing the software, but I some areas where I go out in service that I do not have cell phone access, so if I was out in field service I would not be able to use the program at all :( There are many people in my boat too, many that have expressed that Google Maps doesn't even know where their street is because it is so rural.
Also, many people have expressed concerns that they do not want their calls on the internet and have inquired how I store the calls and I reassured them that nothing is sent anywhere it always stays on the phone. This was very reassuring for them (and probably for their calls who do not want their identity stolen from the possibly hacked cloud computing servers). On a personal note, I also hate signing up for yet another web service that I have to remember a password for (I use different passwords with > 14 characters each, I am in the Firewall/VPN software business and am very paranoid :\ ahem security conscious)
Cloud computing is useful for some things but not all things, sadly there are many companies out there implementing things where someone just learned how to use a hammer and everything is now a nail (cloud computing being the hammer in this case). Everything has a place and I don't think that it fits that well in MyTime™ given some of the problems associated with it.
MyTime™ keeps getting uninstalled from my iPhone; what is the deal?
There are two causes for this (none of them involve me or MyTime™ being at fault): 1. You have synced your iPhone/iPod with a different computer or iTunes user... The iPhone and iPod do not work like this, iTunes when it asks "would you like to transfer your purchases to this computer" is basically telling you "Would you like to delete all applications off of your iPhone and then transfer the applications in this computer's iTunes library onto your iPhone?" Usually this is never what you want. 2: You have a hardware problem just like what is described above in the I have an iPod/iPhone Touch and I keep loosing my data* FAQ entry
I have an iPod/iPhone Touch and I keep loosing my data, what do I do?
Most likely this is not a problem with MyTime™, but rather might be related to your iPod/iPhone case (I have received one report of 2 iPods failing and having to be replaced in this manner). Do you have a case for your iPod/iPhone that has magnets on it? Some cases that have more than 2 magnets generate a large enough magnetic field when the magnets touch each other that it will reset or cause permanent damage to your iPod/iPhone... my reccomendation: don't use cases with magnets on them... and you might want to go to an apple store and get your iPod/iPhone replaced if it is doing this just to be on the safe side.
I have an iPod Touch, iPad (or an iPhone with spotty internet access) and would like to view the maps while out in service, what do I do?
When you are using the internet from a wifi hotspot or your home, you can use the Mapped Calls view and zoom into the places/streets that you are interested in and those images will be stored on your iTouch/iPhone so that you can use the map view while you are not connected to a wifi network or have spotty service. Sorry, this is a very manual process and maybe I could come up with something that might make this automatic.
Help! I have lost my MyTime™ data and the restore from iTunes did not work!
I have created a BACKUP WIKI to help you get and restore your backup.
What if I upgrade to the newest iPhone or iPad? Will I be able to transfer my MyTime™ data?
Yes, either you can use an iCloud back to restore from or you can manually restore your data from your old device to your new device:
- On your OLD iPhone/iTouch go to MyTime™->More->Settings and touch the "Email Backup".
- Email this email to yourself using an account that is configured in the mail application on your new phone
- Now open up the mail application on your NEW iPhone and press get the email you just emailed yourself and press on the link within the email to restore your backup on your new phone
Can you get MyTime to work on Android or Windows phone?!?
I have received a lot of email about this. Sorry, I don’t own a Blackberry, windows phone or android and probably don't plan on in the near future. From what I have investigated it is a completely different programming environment than what I am dealing with for the iPhone (meaning I would have to rewrite things from scratch... another > 600 hour investment). I am currently having to keep balanced with the time that I spend on making sure that MyTime™ is bug free and servicing feature requests (and my feature requests, too ;) and make sure that I am primarily focused on Jehovah. I am afraid that adding more to this will only make things bad.
If I chose to make MyTime™ available for a bunch of platforms, lets say Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry... well now it will take 3 times as long for me to write features and get you updates. It would also cause problems and incompatibilities because I would have to write to the lowest common denominator. So it is also better for you that I dont write for different operating systems.
There is a field service application on the blackberry which is not like mytime but useful at:
There are two options on the Android Market (I neither support nor endorse either of these programs):
Windows Mobile platform:
I used the passcode feature but cant get into MyTime™! HELP!
I will have to remove the passcode for you :(
- Start the Settings applicaiton
- scroll down and select MyTime™
- enable the "Email backup Instantly"
- quit the settings application and start mytime
- email me toopriddy@gmail.com the email backup and tell me something about your data that I will be able to authenticate that it is really you that this data
belongs to (like your pioneer start date or the last call that you did and some notes that would have been in that call)
I really dont like how MyTime™ works, I want things to be done like XYZ!
Any requests can be sent to me toopriddy@gmail.com or you can put your requests up for discussion on the FEATURE REQUEST page. If you really want something different then there are several options (free and paid).
How do I reset the Service Year Totals? How can I get the "Last Service Year Totals" to go away?!?
MyTime™ displays the "Last Service Year" totals in August so that you can turn in your field service activity report and keep a record of the last service year for yourself. MyTime™ does not display the current service year during the month of August because it would be exactly the same numbers as what you already see in the August section (there would only be one month in that service year). You just have to wait till October for the "Last Service Year Totals" to go away and the new service year totals to appear. MyTime™ is in its fourth service year now; I tried to make it where you did not have to do anything, it will take care of the service year totals for you.
How do I backup my MyTime™ data?
There are several ways you can backup your MyTime™ data:
- *iCloud Backup:* turn on iCloud backups from the Settings application -> iCloud->Storage & Backup -> and then turn on the "iCloud Backup" and then within "Manage Storage" make sure that MyTime™ is turned on
- *iTunes backup:* if you dont have iCloud or have the iCloud backup on then you can just sync your device with iTunes and it will backup your data.
- *Email Backup:* You have to have an email account setup on your iPhone, or whatever iDevice you are using, but you can run MyTime™ and go to ->More->Settings->Email Backup->Email MyTime™ backup and send the email to yourself.
- *Email Printable Backup:* same as the "Email Backup" option above but you get a version that you can print out in the event you might lose your device. (If you send me your "Email Backup" I can send you a printable version so you dont have to always do a printable backup).
Are you one of Jehovah's Witnesses?
Yes, I am serving in the Madison, AL congregation in the USA. I have served as the congregation secretary and currently assisting the LDC as a trade consultant.
Why are the map pin colors different?
Pin colors are based on the number of days since the last visit. (Green < 7days, Purple < 14 days, Red > 14 days)
Why are my calls not showing up on the "Mapped Calls" view?
There are a couple main reasons why you would have this problem: 1) You have to make sure that you have entered all of the address information including city and state or country if you are outside of the US. 2) Make sure you entered only the house number in the house number field and the street name in the street name field, do not combine the two. 3) You have misspelled the street, city, or state/country. If you are sure that you have not done the above things then email me your mytime backup (MyTime™->More->Settings->Email Backup to toopriddy@gmail.com) with information about what call is not showing up.
*I would like to know what calls are not showing up on the map*
You can make a filter for all calls that are not mapped.
- Go to the MyTime™->More->Sorted by... View
- Press on the upper left button->Press "Edit"
- Scroll down and press "Add New Display Rule" at the bottom
- Now enter the name as "Calls not mapped"
- Press on the "Add Filter Rule" and then press on "Location Acquired", you will now be back at the view where you named this display rule "calls not mapped",
- click on the newly added "Location Acquired" filter and then select "Done" (this is to set it to say Location Acquired == NO)
- Now press "Done" to quit editing the "calls not mapped"
- again press "Done" to quit editing the display rules.
- Now press on "Calls not mapped" these should be all of the calls that do not appear on the map.
I would like to plan out my return visits for the day, how can I schedule the Next Visit?
Please take a look at the above FAQ entry for the "Next Visit". It explains how you can create an "Additional Information" to schedule next visits, well you can do the same with ordering your calls in advance (the above FAQ entry and the tutorial videos in MyTime™->More->Tutorials help you to see the concept of what you will be doing below).
- You can follow the instructions above creating a "Next Visit Day" that is a Multiple Choice with the days as options or even the next visit date as a date (I dont know exactly how you are wanting to do this).
- You can also create an additional information for "Next Visit Priority" as a Number and then put a priority to the call (or the order that you want to make the calls for the day).
- Then you can also create an additional information for "Next Visit Notes" as a Notes type (for you to solidify your thoughts about what you are going to talk to them about).
All of these should be moved up to the "Always shown section" just as the above instructions show.
Then you can use these 3 fields to plan out your day. You can see them sorted by day by going to the MyTime™->More->Sorted By... view and then pressing on the top left hand button. The following instructions show you how you can create a "Display Rule" to see your calls sorted by day and priority; you will only have to do the following once:
- Then press "Edit"
- Then scroll down to the bottom and select "Add Display Rule"
- Then at the bottom click on "Add Display Rule"
- Set the name to "Day's Plans"
- Press on "Add new sort rule"
- Press on "Next Visit Day"
- Press on "Add new sort rule"
- Press on "Next Visit Priority"
- Press on "Add filter rule"
- Press on "Deleted"
- Press on "Deleted" in the list of filter rules
- Press on "Done" to confirm that you dont want to see deleted calls
- Press on "Done" to quit editing the display rule
- Press on "Done" again to quit editing all of the display rules
- Press on the "Day's Plans" to now start using your display rule.
You can now edit all of your calls and put the next visit day and priority and notes.
How do I schedule a return visit?
MyTime™ does not work with the calendar yet but you can accomplish this; You can do a Next Visit Date right now in MyTime™. Here is the tip: Go to an existing call, press "Edit" then press "Add Additional Information", then press "Edit" so that you can add another additional information "type", press on the "Add Custom Information" Then type in "Next Visit" and scroll down and select "Date/Time" and then press the "Done" button. now at the main "Add Info" press and hold on the move icon at the far right of the "Next Visit" row and move it up to the very top of the screen into the "Information Always Shown" section. Now press "Done" and then press the back button labeled "Call".
You should now have a "Next Visit" Additional Information value in every single one of your existing calls and it will be there in all of your new calls.
You can then go to the More->Sorted by ... view and then press on the top left button and change the sort to the "Next Visit" and that view will be sorted by your scheduled next visits.
How do I enter in an existing study?
You have to enter your study as a call (cause they started out that way), and make a "dummy" visit to let mytime think that any subsequent visit is a "return visit". Now press "Done" to save the call and select the call again and then press "Edit" and then "Add Return Visit", now just enter the last time that you studied with them this month and change the type of the visit to "study" and press "Done". Each time you have a study with them, just enter another "visit" and change the type to a study and you can keep up with where you left off in the notes section.
Why is the return visit count not accurate, where are my return visits?
It is probably because you have not made a "return visit"; in MyTime™ you have to have 2 visits in a call (two dated visits) for MyTime™ to count 1 return visit (this is just like how you should count return visits). If you are adding your calls from your call book, make sure that you date all of your visits even the first visit, because MyTime™ will not count a return visit unless you have returned and added a second visit to the MyTime™ database.
How do you add a return visit?
After you add a call, you can see the call in the Name, Street, and Date sorted views. Click on your call you want to add a return visit to. Then click "Edit" and then click "Add Return Visit". The first "visit" that you input for a call is the "initial visit" you have to make another "return visit" to count the visit as a "return visit"
Can you keep a count of magazines and return visits like you do the hours?
Yes, it already does this (it even tells you this in the popup when you first look at the statistics screen). I just don't show the return visit, magazine, brochure, study, and book counts if you do not have any.
How do I manually change the statistics to enter publications placed?
The focus of MyTime™ was to follow the direction given in the OD book to us about keeping accurate field service reports which includes detailed information about our return visits and what we talked to them about. MyTime™ focuses on that and keeping up with your field service hours is a bonus. There is a way to enter your data from the start by going to Statistics and pressing the Edit button, but I do not recommend doing this on a normal basis for recording placements, return visits, and hours.
I added hours but the Statistics does not reflect this
Take a look at the hours row in the "Statistics" view, it probably says that you have manually reduced the amount of hours and perhaps the hours for that month do not add up above 0 including your manual adjustments. Correct your manual adjustments by pressing "Edit" on the "Statistics" view and then adjusting the hours appropriately. This problem is usually due to people playing with MyTime™ for the first time and not realizing that the manual adjustments to the statistics on the "Statistics" tap are saved separately from the hours and return visit information.
The Statistics calculations are wrong.
There might be some confusion based on LDC hours or other hours which are pioneer credits automatically getting added to the service year totals due to their complicated calculations that mytime helps you with.
MyTime™ automatically adds in your LDC, temp work or other pioneer credits to your service year totals based on the credit type. For instance LDC hours are only allowed to be applied to the month you received them in and they are only able to credit up to 70 hours of your field service hours for the month, but not over. For instance if you have 60 field service hours and worked 50 hours LDC then only 10 hours of those LDC credits are allowed to be applied to that month and the credits are not to be carried over to the next month. !MyTime™ automatically adds this portion of the credit to your "Service Year Totals" so that you don't have to do this complicated calculation.
"Direct credits" like foreign language classes do not have this same 70 hour cap (higher for special pioneers).
When are you going to have iCloud Syncing?
I have avoided iCloud because of some serious errors that I and the iOS 3rd party community are concerned about which would result in
- Loss of your data
- Syncing stops working with no notification to the user or program, the only way to get around this problem is to delete your data and start over.
I didn't want to cause some of these issues in people's data so I have been waiting on them to fix the issues in 3rd party apps (the apple apps use their own libraries which do not have these issues as I have surmised).
I will be reevaluating this after MyTime™ every iOS release.
I asked for something in the iTunes review but you did not reply, why not?
I can not actually reply to posts in the iTunes reviews. I cant even get your email address to address your concerns, sorry. Blame apple. This website is the main/only way you can really communicate with me outside of emailing me toopriddy@gmail.com, but please read the rest of this webpage.
How long has MyTime™ been around?
I started MyTime™ in November 2007 as a jailbroken application, beta testers had it until 2/15/2008 when it was publicly available. It was added to the iOS AppStore in October 2008.