Synchronize Plates on Android with FolderSync

The best Android application to conveniently sync the AIP plates you need is FolderSync. The lite version does not allow you to define your filters which means you have to setup syncing for each part of the library you want. The full version costs a fee but is recommended.

In FolderSync, go to the section “Accounts” and add a new account. Choose “WebDAV” as type at the bottom of the list. Give it a unique name, for example “autorouter”. In the “Connection” settings, enter

https://www.autorouter.aero/webdav

as the server address. Under “Login”, supply your standard login credentials for autorouter.eu, i.e. your email address and password.

Next click “TEST” to make sure the login is successful and last but not least “SAVE”.

Next you have to setup a synchronization task which tells FolderSync what to download and where to store it. Go to the section “Folderpairs” and click on the plus icon to create a new folder pair. Choose the account you just created and as Sync type “To local folder”

For the “Remote folder” you have two options. Either you only select one folder that you’re interested in “let’s say the plates of Estonia or of EDDF – Frankfurt am Main” or you specify the document root (“/”) and later define filters to control the data it’s going to sync. Do not just sync the whole library — this is more than 7GB of data and not necessary.

As local folder, choose something on your Android device, like the “Documents” folder. You can use any file manager later to access the directory.

There are a lot of options but you don’t have to change any. Make sure that “Sync subfolders” is selected and then press “SAVE” to store the settings.

If you’ve chosen the document root, you now need to create filters (this requires the full version of FolderSync which has to be purchased). Open the folder pair you just defined and at the bottom tap on “FILTERS”. This brings up the filter list. Click on the plus sign to define a new filter.

As condition select “Folder name contains” and then as value the name of the authority (country, the top level directory) preceded by a forward slash. Then you have to make sure to click the “Configure as include filter” checkbox as it would otherwise download everything besides what you want! When done, click “SAVE”.

Repeat the above steps for all countries you are interested in, keeping storage space and transfer volume in mind. You can always add more countries by defining more filters. You get to the filters by tapping the entry in the “Folderpairs” screen and choosing “FILTERS”.

When you setup your folder pair, there were options for automated synchronization. By default, this is disabled and you have to sync yourself — say before leaving on a flight. Go to folderparis and tap “SYNC” on your folder. You can watch the progress in the “Sync Status” section of the application.

Accessing synchronized files on Android

FolderSync downloads the plates as PDF files to the location you’ve configured. Now you need a file manager to access the files conveniently and be able to browse, search and open. We recommend the excellent File Explorer (FX). Open your documents folder that you defined in FolderSync and you can see all files.

To conveniently access your plates from your home screen, find your base folder (in our above example it’s called “AIP”) and tap it while holding your finger until a menu appears. There choose “Add Bookmark” at the bottom and then “Launcher Shortcut” and “OK”.

You will now get a folder called “AIP” on your front screen which you can open and browse, search, sort, etc. From this folder you can open the documents in your favorite PDF viewer.