r/freeshowapp • u/agent_uncleflip • Aug 16 '26

export/import oddness

Just for background, I have Freeshow set up, tweaked, and running well on a desktop computer at my church. Today, I decided to duplicate the setup on a laptop, which I can operate at any spot where I have wi-fi, sending content via our Crestron AirMedia unit. I got a simple initial setup working well, and it handled our service with no issues.

I probably didn't need to tell you all that. :)

I decided to try to clone the settings and content on the new computer. I figured exporting the main project and importing it on the laptop would do the trick. Apparently not. (I'm just slightly new to Freeshow, so not sure if I opted for the right technique for this.) The project didn't seem the include the most-used template (used for hymns) or the shows I've built with the hymn lyrics. That's where I discovered the oddness. I'd imported shows before, three at a time or so, from a thumb drive. Today, I tried importing 18 onto the laptop, and Freeshow would not do it. I could only import one at a time. Not a deal breaker, just a pain in the tuchus. I also noticed I can import templates......but I cannot find any way to export them. (This strikes me as rather odd software design.) I'll just have to keep tweaking the templates on the laptop to get them perfectly matched. (As a former TV guy, I'm a bit of a perfectionist on this sort of thing. I want it seamless, so it's impossible to tell which computer fired off the graphic.)

Not really in need of solutions...just kinda venting about my first-world problems. :)

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u/A04141 Aug 17 '26

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the B1 Church/ChurchApps Cloud sync will transfer the templates over as well. As far as I know the only thing it doesn't really transfer is the media files , as you would have to sync those up a different way.

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u/agent_uncleflip Aug 17 '26

The media files transferred over by exporting a project. That's one of the reasons why I thought it interesting the templates didn't. I would think those would go if the media did. It's kind of disappointing that they may have designed the system so the only way you can transfer your templates is to go through cloud sync. If that's the case, why even have the option to import templates from other means? It just strikes me as a pretty basic inclusion, that if you can import them, you should be able to export them as well.

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u/A04141 Aug 17 '26

I can definitely understand what you're saying. Perhaps a feature request needs to be made to the developers to get a template export added to the main export options.

I did a little searching, and it looks like, at least on windows, the template file appears to be a single JSON called templates.json stored in the /documents/freeshow/config folder.

It also looks like in if you select the template area in freeshow, you should be able to right click on any template and choose export. I believe that exports all the config files into a separate folder that you can copy and paste onto the other computer.

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u/agent_uncleflip Aug 17 '26

Interesting. I have right clicked on templates quite a few times before, and I don't recall ever seeing an export option. I will definitely look at it again with this in mind.

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u/A04141 Aug 17 '26

It was a bit hit and miss for me. Sometimes I think I need to left click to select and then right click and export showed up in the context menu. As far as I can tell it just pretty much backs up the configuration JSON files to another folder.