Force a List to Resync

Lists that have "(sync)" in the name are considered sync lists. Sync lists get their data from a source outside of BrightArrow. The data can come from a google spreadsheet, a student information system such as PowerSchool or Infinite Campus, or a separate database all together. The difference between a sync list and a list you upload your spreadsheet into is that sync lists update automatically and on a scheduled basis. 

When do sync lists update?

Sync lists are scheduled to update at various times depending on what they are for. Static list updates are done overnight when they are least likely to interrupt a message being sent. These are lists like your parents list, your staff list, your board of education list, etc.

Other lists need to happen during the day as they are a reaction to what is happening. Attendance, for example, might happen in the morning so messages about a student not arriving at school can go out ASAP. Many of these lists will be set up to import the data and then immediately send it which should be considered when thinking about forcing a resync. 

Still others happen during the day but not everyday such as weekly reminders of money owed. These lists are often set up to import and then send immediately without a user hitting the send button but are more of a periodic reminder rather than an everyday alert.

Use caution when forcing a sync

When your lists sync automatically, they update late at night or very early in the morning to avoid any messages being sent while they update. If you choose to force your lists to sync mid-day, any messages that are sending while the list is updating will be at risk of not sending correctly. Messages can only send to the data that is available in the list at the time they send, so if your list is only half-way through updating, your message might still pick up incorrect data for the contacts who haven't been updated yet. 

Remember that you are not only updating the sync list itself, but also any other superset, subset, or copied lists that are linked to it. Before forcing a sync, review the scheduled messages in the Contact Lists or Jobs pages to make sure no messages will be sending to that list or any lists that are linked to it. You may want to also let your staff know to refrain from sending any messages until the synchronization is complete. 

Note that your lists will not update automatically through an overnight sync if you force it to sync during the day. Automatic syncs only occur if the list hasn't been updated in the last 24 hours. If you expect any changes will be made in your data source (for example your SIS or HR database) after you forced the syncs, you may want to go in and force another sync at the end of your workday to ensure changes are populated in BrightArrow for the next day's messages. 

How long will the sync take to complete?

The resynchronization process can take some time. For some lists, the process may only take a few minutes but for other lists it might take longer.

Factors to consider:

• The overall size of the sync list - The larger the list, the longer it will take to sync. The more data there is in your list, the more time it will take to update it. 
• The number of lists that are linked to it - Linked lists are lists that are derived from or tied to another list. When data changes in the source list, those changes flow through to the "linked" list. If there are large number of linked lists that use your sync list as the source for their data, the overall process to fully update all the lists will take longer. 

How do I force a sync to happen now rather than wait for the schedule?

To force a sync to happen now:

1. In Revere, go to Contact Lists in your navigation panel
2. Click on the sync list you want to force refresh. If you don't have access to any lists that say (sync) after the name, reach out to your system administrator or BrightArrow support to request the sync be forced. Shown above: Contact Lists view in grid view, with navigation at the top
   
   
   
   Tip! To easily find all sync lists, click on the All Lists folder in the folder bar, then click the Filters button to narrow your view to show only sync lists. Click Filters again to clear your filters once you're done. 
   
   Shown above: Contact Lists view in table view with side navigation panel, in the All Lists folder with the "Synced to Data Source" filter applied
   
   
3. Once you click on the list you will be brought to a page showing all the details for each recipient. Click on the button at the top of the page to "Resync to Data Source"
   
4. In the pop-up window, review the warning text then click "Resync" if you still want to proceed. 
   
   1. Syncing a list removes any manually made edits and overwrites the list with the information from your external data source (for example, your SIS or HR database). 
   2. Refreshed contacts might take several minutes to appear. The process is not instantaneous. 
5. Wait or check back later. Depending on where the data is coming from the process can take several minutes.

What are the downsides?

There are only a few possible downsides to consider

• Forcing a resync will count as that day's sync. If you do it early then you will not get the normal update again overnight so any changes made for the rest of the day will not show up until the following day's sync. Not a huge problem, but something to be aware of.
• Your list may have more than one sync attached to it. If so, the next one on the schedule is what will happen. An example of this is attendance lists. Each night a separate sync rule is run to clear the attendance lists so you start fresh each day with 0 records so you always know that any attendance in the list is for the current date. If the normal sync has already happened then a resync will trigger the other sync rule instead of re-importing.

In all these cases BrightArrow support can get around them. If you've already run the resync you can let support know and they can reschedule the sync for that day, or you can let them know and they'll handle the whole resync for you in a way that doesn't have the downsides.

What happens to linked lists?

Lists that are linked to the sync list you are updating will also get updated. This is not an immediate update, it will take several minutes after the sync list is done for the linked lists to get their new data. There is also a period of each morning where the linked lists will not get updated, we call this the "attendance window" where we do not update linked lists so that more urgent things can happen, however the linked lists will get updated after.

How do I know when a resync is done?

On the Contact Lists page you can view the List Updated date for that list. Hover over the Last Updated date to see what time it updated. This will tell you the last time any change was made to the list (manual or sync). If you see that the last update happened 5 hours ago and you just resynced you know it's not done.

Shown below: List Updated date and time revealed when hovering over the "Updated" date, in grid view. 

Shown below: List Updated date and time revealed when hovering over the "List Updated" date, in table view. 

I did a resync and didn't see what I wanted so I did another resync and nothing seems to be happening?

Some syncs use files to update. These are pretty quick since the file is there, but if you haven't sent us an updated file then it will re-import the same data and you won't see any changes. 

Other syncs use what's called an API call. When these syncs run our system contacts your system and requests data. These syncs are slower, in some cases a lot slower. DASL syncs, for example, can take up to 20 minutes. If you keep resyncing while it's still in the process of performing the sync you'll slow down the system exponentially. The more you do the longer it will take for your data to refresh. Refer to the section above on how to know when the resync is done before trying again.

Blackbaud users may need to reset the Blackbaud SKY API through a sync list's List Settings. See here for more information about reauthorizing a Blackbaud sync.