Shared Collections — How Quickly Do Updates Appear?
Short answer
If you share a collection with someone, the updates you make show up on their device almost immediately. The other direction can be a little slower: when they make a change in your collection, your device may have to check in with iCloud to pick it up, so expect their edits within about a minute while MotionEdge is open. This isn't a bug — it's how iCloud handles shared content. The expectation worth setting is simple: members can see the owner's updates sooner than the owner sees the members'.
What does this look like in practice?
Say you (the owner) share a collection with your coach (a member):
- You add a swing, comment, or drawing. Your coach's device gets a near-instant push from iCloud and the change appears within a couple of seconds.
- Your coach adds a comment, marks a swing, or imports data. Your device picks up the change on its next check-in — typically within a minute when the app is open, longer when it's in the background.
For most coaching and review workflows this is invisible. You usually find out about a coach's comment when you next open the swing, not the moment it happened.
Why isn't it instant in both directions?
Apple's iCloud sharing delivers notifications very reliably in one direction (owner → members) and less reliably in the other (members → owner). To cover that, the app also checks in with iCloud regularly to pull anything the people in your collection have added. That check-in interval is short, but it isn't zero.
Apple doesn't promise an exact delivery time for iCloud, so MotionEdge can't guarantee one either.
How can I force an immediate refresh?
You don't usually need to — but if you're collaborating live and want to see a member's change right now, open Settings → Sync & Sharing and tap Sync Now. That checks with iCloud immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled check-in.
Is anything lost in the meantime?
No. Updates from members are saved to iCloud as soon as their device is online. The small delay is only about how soon your device discovers them — not whether they exist. As soon as your device checks in, every change since the last check is pulled down together.
Does this apply to all shared content?
Yes. The asymmetry covers swings, comments, drawings, imported data, and edits to anything in the shared collection. The same expectation applies whether you're sharing with a coach, a teammate, or a friend. For how collection sharing works in general, see Collections — How Sharing Works.