Clear Recipes from MasterCook.com

How do I reset my account at MasterCook.com, so there are no recipes and sync doesn't delete them from MasterCook on my computer?

You have to do this carefully because normally when you delete a cookbook from one location, sync is supposed to do the same at the other location. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the My Account tab in the sync manager on the computer and press the Logout button. (It's important to be logged out of your online account while performing the following steps.)

2. If you have online cookbooks with recipes that are NOT in MasterCook on your computer, you will want to download your online cookbooks as files to your computer first. Go to your online cookbooks web page here: http://mastercook.com/app/Cookbook and press the Download link next to one of your online cookbooks. Be patient. It can take a while for it to start and finish downloading depending on the number of recipes and size of their photos. Do not open the file. Just download it for now. Repeat with your other online cookbooks.

3. Now you need to clear your online content. Go to your online cookbooks web page here: http://mastercook.com/app/Cookbook and press the Delete link next to each one of your online cookbooks to delete them and all of their recipes.

The more recipes you have in an online cookbook, the longer it will take to delete that online cookbook because it has to delete all of the records (recipes) first. Be patient. Do not disturb it while it's busy doing that either. Just be patient. If you have an online cookbook with thousands of recipes inside of it, it can take a long time. You might consider using the Delete link while you go do something else. Just leave it be to complete that task.

4. Go to the Cookbooks screen in MasterCook on the computer and select Refresh File List from the Tools menu. (It's very important to refresh the files to reset sync before you sign back into the sync manager.)

5. At this point if you downloaded online cookbooks as files to your computer, you can open one of those files and MasterCook will prompt you to save it to the program on the computer.

6. Go to the My Account tab in the sync manager on the computer and sign back into your account.

7. Go to the Sync tab in the sync manager. The cookbooks should appear and show to Add To Online. Make sure it shows to Add To Online. Then try syncing just one cookbook for now. See how that goes. If you get an error message and it says to try again, please press the Sync Now button so it can sync the recipes that remain.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to sync all of your recipes within a cookbook. It can skip over a recipe that is taking too long, for example. So, if you get an error message and it tells you to try again, press the Sync Now button to try again. It will sync the recipes that remain.

CAUSES OF SYNCING PROBLEMS:

• A cookbook can't sync if you have it opened and are viewing it inside the program on the computer. Therefore, go to the main cookbooks screen in MasterCook on the computer, so the cookbook is no longer in use. Or, close the MasterCook Windows program. It does not need to be running while you are using the sync manager program to sync.
• A cookbook cannot sync if you have duplicates of that cookbook in your online cookbooks screen which you can review here: Online Cookbooks. If you have duplicate online cookbooks, immediately sign out of your account in the sync manager on the computer and follow these instructions: Duplicate Online Cookbooks
• Recipes can't sync if you have duplicate recipes within an online cookbook. Open your online cookbook and scan through the title to make sure you don't have duplicate recipes inside of an online cookbook. In MasterCook on the computer you are not able to have duplicate recipes within a cookbook, so that's why they can't sync.
• If you open a cookbook file from Windows, such as one in a backup location, that temporarily opens that cookbook file in MasterCook. If you already have a cookbook by that name in the program, you will have created a duplicate ghost at this point since the program is already using a cookbook by that name. That will cause an issue for sync. If you must do this, first sign out of your online account in the sync manager. After you are done temporarily viewing a cookbook file in this manner, go to the Cookbooks screen in MasterCook on the computer and select Refresh File List from the Tools menu. This causes MasterCook to forget about the file you temporarily opened. Then you can sign back into the sync manager.