FreeFileSync Forum

No idea, where will I find the .log file?

I have had the same problem.
I wanted to copy my recently ripped music to a backup drive. The music is in the form of Artist (folder), Album (folder), Track (file).
The new files were transfered to the appropriate folder (and sub folder) but when I checked the source the new files has been deleted ...

I believe I may be able to translate.
The OP has some folders which contain files. He deletes some of the files which, on occasion, leaves an empty folder.
When he Mirrors the files onto the target the copies of the (deleted source) files are deleted but not the folders which once contained them.

I am trying to back up my ripped music.
I selected the source and target drive and carefully selected UPDATE so it would update the target by backing up with the new artists and albums (folders) and tracks (files) I have ripped.
The artists, albums and tracks were updated on the target but when I ...

Never use mirror sync.
This will delete everything in your backup folder that is not in your source folder.
For example:
If you rip a new album to a USB stick and then use "Mirror" to sync this onto your backup drive the program will delete everything on your backup drive and you will be left with ...

Anyway, it is obvious that almost none of you wish to help me but remain happy in your smugness "look at what the roob did!" I know I did not do things correctly according to the program parameters (or I would not have deleted my data) as I am not a techie and mistook the meaning of MIRROR in this ...

Mirrors do not delete things. Part of the image is replaced with a newer image but the background is not deleted. Look in a mirror and you will see that the rest of the room is still there.

Sure (AS IN YES YOU ARE CORRECT), but the 'room' in this analogy are your thousands of files on the ...

LOL
That video literally says
A "mirror" synchronization determines the differences between a source and a target folder, then copies and deletes files on the target folder as needed until it has become an exact copy of the source
No one said you were stupid, just that you made a mistake. Now I ...

Sorry to hear that mate. Must be frustrating. WonderingAboutThat, 31 Mar 2023, 19:44

Yes, I had many people telling me how stupid I was to do it wrong. Now I have quoted the tutorial no one seems interested any more.
Allwaysync (now Bestsync) have told me how I can use that program so I think I'll go back to them.

I'm a new user and your experience certainly raises red flags for me. I'm curious, did you select a specific folder within your external hard drive to place the music in from your usb drive (for example, you create a folder in your external drive that's titled "USB Music" and then select that ...

I have just viewed the introductory tutorial again. Just as I thought, the lady uses "one way mirror" with no mention that it would delete everything that was originally on the target drive.


It has gone suspiciously quiet. Was I imagining things or does the tutorial tell me to do exactly what I ...

I have just viewed the introductory tutorial again. Just as I thought, the lady uses "one way mirror" with no mention that it would delete everything that was originally on the target drive.

> If you had offered help, ... , my posts would never have even headed towards ranting.

Before your reply of March 25, you never asked for help other than the hypothetical "How do I recover my lost music?", and even that only after putting the blame at the program ("I have lost hundreds of hours ...

Perhaps one or two of you geniuses will describe what settings I SHOULD have used.


You're just too kind, Plerry. But at this point, this topic is just an excuse for majex45 to vent, and doesn't deserve more responses.


If you had offered help, like Plerry, instead of gloating about how ...

In your case, the suitable sync variant is the Update variant.
This will copy every left-side item to the right, if that item only exists on the left side (similar to the Mirror variant),
will overwrite existing right-side items, if the left-side item is newer (similar to the Mirror variant ...

Perhaps one or two of you geniuses will describe what settings I SHOULD have used.
Let me explain again what I was trying to achieve:
I have a hard drive with lots of music ripped from CD. This in in the form of Artists>Albums>Tracks in alphabetical order; ie Abba is before Bjork is before Clannad ...

FreeFileSync did show a warning, which you apparently missed:

The following folders are significantly different. Please check that the correct folders are selected for synchronization.

The warning is triggered when more than 50% of items will be created or deleted.



I have already ...

lmao Another one lost to RTFM xCSxXenon, 25 Mar 2023, 16:20

No,lost to AOMEI. IMAO is far too correct for me to say.

A warning is not too much to ask, surely?

Not sure if I got this message the first time. Maybe yes, maybe no. If so I still don't know what the message means.
I read it as "you cannot delete this data to the recycle bin".
Well I didn't want to delete it to the recycle bin so it seemed fine.
I have found (by trial and error) that you can ...

If I remember rightly (and I am now too frightened to open the software) the default sends data in both directions. Thus I would have sent 150Mb to a 16 Gb USB disk. Would that have deleted everything from both disks?


I just tried it again using two small USB drives. The default is MIRROR and I ...

If I remember rightly (and I am now too frightened to open the software) the default sends data in both directions. Thus I would have sent 150Mb to a 16 Gb USB disk. Would that have deleted everything from both disks?

You deliberately selected "Mirror", which is not the default option, without understanding what it does.

You did not check the statistics about file deletion shown at the bottom at the screen, and a second time in the popup where you confirm the synchronization.

Also, you did not look at the ...

Yes, I knew they were significantly different otherwise I would not need to synchronise them. I was trying to add extra files (and folders) to a lot of original data. They were the correct folders that I needed to synchronise.
Nothing said "There is a lot of data on the target drive - we are going ...

I still think there should be a warning that you are about to delete data from the target drive, it is non inituitive. Not difficult to add the warning I imagine, and at least one other on here has done the same thing as me.
It is easy for a professional to say "it has done what you asked" but a non ...

Surely Freefilesunc is working on a solution. How soon will we have it?

I have downloaded Freefilesync and wanted to add some new music to my backup hard drive from a USB stick (about 8 GB) onto a 300GB hard disc (with about 150 GB of music already on it).
I selected Mirror (ie send data from USB stick to hard drive but not the other way around) and Freefilesync has ...