FreeFileSync Forum

This is a synchronization tool, not cp/rsync/rclone...

... when several remote computers attempt to copy (synchronize) from a NAS, mainly file permissions and sync.ffs_lock errors. The remote computers connect to the NAS using SMB. My question is whether FreeFileSync is designed for multiple computers synching with a NAS or rsync is a better protocol to use?

... it, too, it simply enqueues the operations. Honestly, I can't see a reason for that, especially when copying from an SSD source to multiple HDD destinations. I'm currently doing it via command line by running rsync on two separate terminals. cp works, too.

@zenju, do you have any news on this?

I am not very familiar with (what seems to be) Linux and mounting remote/cloud locations via rsync.

That said, I have a couple of questions/observations:
• "I am attaching screenshots of the current configuration, which is not working".
What is not working?
Does RTS not detect changes and ...

... uglier and prone to misalignment errors on odd storage devices.

Seems like there would be open-source code to do that. Many backup programs use rsync under the covers. I've read ffs doesn't (it's written to do what it does). I wonder if rsynch takes a long time to copy your file too? (If not, it ...

... 4. SSH + Port Forwarding (Advanced)

If you enable SSH access, you can tunnel into the device and set up remote forwarding or use rsync, SCP, etc.

Enable SSH in Settings > Network > SSH

Use your router to forward port 22

Log in with an SSH client (like PuTTY or OpenSSH)

Warning ...

... and my goal is not to diss FFS, some place called GoodFirms has a useful but dated list of file sync utilities , and lists FFS first in the list. DirSyncPro and Synkron are not being maintained, but some people may still use them.

AlternativeTo is a good resource. They list alternatives to ...

... but something is definitely going on. My next step is to do a complete backup on my samsung s20 fe with adb just to confirm that the connection and phone are operating correctly. If a client is requiring a "full" android backup (without root) I've had good success with a typical adb rsync style job.

Rsync is a very difficult app to use in comparison.

I understand that you're fixated on using a UNC path and not a drive letter being mapped to that UNC Pad but why don't you give it a try and at least see if it works. If it works that's your solution.

Using a drive letter on Windows is not the end ...

The question was "Is there an advantage of FFS over rsync?"
And xCSxXenon answered "FFS has a GUI"
The point being, that rsync does not have a GUI.

FreeFileSync Will Not Scan UNC Path? Schorschi, 02 Jun 2025, 04:46

For my Debian box, I use rsync. Is there an advantage of FFS over rsync?

... Attempts to run FreeFileSync_x86_64 in batch mode (-b) fail with Unable to initialize GTK+ (GUI dependency error).

How to validate the .key license on a server without GUI?

Installed via .run file (logged as successful but no CLI tools).
Attempted workarounds with Xvfb (virtual X11) and rsync.

thanks for the link

I tried with other sync tools :
dirSync Pro : same error than FreeFileSync
deltaCopy with rsync : links were not recognized

I finally wrote a powershell script to export the Windows links in a text file which is copied on the NAS and used by another bash script to restore them.

The biggest advantage of FreesFileSync compared to other sync programs (rsync or rclone) is its sophisticated detection of moved files, and this advantage comes from the sync.ffs_db file, as far as I know. So, if I disable writing sync.ffs_db files, wouldn't the biggest advantage of FreeFileSync be ...

Not surprised by support's response. Looking like it's time to try rsync, which is just another level of complication.

Hello,

Thank you for your prompt response.

I understand your concern and want to assist you in any way I can.

However, I would like to clarify that we generally do not offer ...

... of an sftp server application. I tried https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.primftpd/
and the synchronized data has the modification date of today again, so basically no solution.

Any other ideas?

I was thinking about rsync as a last resort. But it seems too complcated. I'm not an advanced IT expert.

RSync does not copy files in readable format from one device to another. I'm using it now to 'backup' one share on my primary NAS, to my backup NAS. The Share appears on the backup NAS, but these are not readable files - the files are broken down into blocks with indicies, across multiple folders, etc ...

RSync is not the program I was referring to. I was referring to a different program that is an open source project and it only needs to be installed on one machine and it can synchronize files back and forth between that machine and another machine and it runs on Windows Linux and Mac and can be ...

rsync is good for the cli users who like to read man pages. FreeFileSync works better for regular desktop users. They definitely do not use the same configuration files/settings/options, so depending on the complexity of your FreeFileSync config, you might not find rsync suitable. If all you do is an ...

I would assume Linux containers can install applications just like full OS's? So just install it as normal

rsync is what the other reply is mentioning, but it's command line only. It is mentioned here plenty:
search.php?keywords=rsync

... combination of Commander One Pro for MacOS MTP access and FreeFileSync for backup/synchronisation a TOTAL SUCCESS! :)

So all of the above about rsync can be ignored as a red herring. Simply select "Show in Finder" from CO's File menu and drag the relevant folder to FFS.

I changed the comparison ...

These instructions are for rsync on the basis that FFS can't help.ClutterCutter, 28 Jun 2024, 20:05

When rsync is able to access the files, then so can FreeFileSync: In the terminal enter pwd to get the working directory, and use this path in FreeFileSync.

... window within the application, with its working directory as the current folder, even if that folder is on an MTP device.

That means you can use rsync -- a Unix command line tool that comes built in to MacOS -- to sync storage, as with Windows: just, sadly, not with a GUI.

It may actually be ...

Thanks.
Although, the target folder's modified timestamp is changed according to synchronisation timestamp and
NOT the source folder's timestamp !
NB: rsync does adjusts target folder's timestamp to reflect source timestamps.
Any fix for that ?

... 10 and Windows 11.
I even "downgraded" FFS, all the way back to FFS v11.29.
Same effects as described above.

Hence this might be a long lasting bug.
I don't expect FFS to change anything unless I hit "Synchronise".

Using rsync on command-line for now... not fun !

Looking forward for a fix.
Regards

... Given my confidence in FFS, I was sceptical about my findings and wanted to exclude the macOS layer.
On both machines (Sonoma and Big Sur), I used rsync (command line) to replicate the FFS job.
It gave me the expected result: source and target were fully synchronised - modification date are equal on ...

... idea was not gonna hold up (but the hubris of noobs is great), I just started using this great program yesterday after being frustrated with using rsync (systems freezes, reading & remembering command line options). Still learning, but so far very happy! Found this software while looking on https ...

Thank you. Yes, I would see it as valuable. I could script this with rsync (I'm a Linux & Mac guy so I could do it via CLI) but I prefer the GUI here of FFS. It just is easier to visually know the results of it.

My use case is probably common. I transport a growing file system from one location to ...

... key from the BIOS or something similar from Apple Hardware: You'd run into data protection issues without users consent.

So there is no other way: trust in your users. If you don't, they will stop using your software and switch to syncthing, unison or a little more sophisticated rsync-bashscript.

I am trying to sync between two peer computers on a local network. I have used rsync for this before on unix and linux, but FreeFileSync looks like a great program.

1. Can FreeFileSync be used peer to peer?
2. If so, how is it configured? Or maybe better, where is the config shown in the ...

LeoW

... can probably do what you need it to a lot faster than you're getting it done now.

For many years Linux users would do this using a program called rsync. It's not very user friendly and only works on Linux.

However, there is a newer program that is similar in use but also works with cloud providers ...

LeoW

... Run either:

rclone config
For a command prompt configuration and setup, and:

rclone rcd --rc-web-gui

For a web based configuration interface.

Let me know if run into trouble configuring rclone. It can be a little intimidating at first. It has a lot in common with rsync, if you've ever used it?

... VPN (very low speed).
When FFS crashes it restarts the copy and that is a problem for me. Larger files it cannot complete as it crashes before the end of the copy and restarts each time.
I know I can use robocopy with the -Z option or Rsync with the --partial option, but I like FFS.
How can I do this?

LeoW

... them.

I would suggest giving a program that runs on Linux Windows and Mac as a command line utility called Rclone a try. It functions similarly to rsync only it has the built in intelligence to know how to talk to cloud servers including SFTP servers. It is open source and free to use. Community ...

LeoW

... via FFS.

I run a simple batch file as needed, rather than having constant monitoring for changes, which is unnecessary for me.

It operates like rsync on linux, only with cloud drives. You would execute:
"rclone -P sync onedrive/documents googledrive:/documents".
The -P shows "progress"

It takes ...

LeoW

... NAS, and it is remote, you'll need to add a "config" for it by running:
"rclone config"

Second,

There is a command available for linux OS called "rsync". It can also do a quicker comparison of two directories to make sure they match.

You can use the rsync -vnc command to compare two directories ...

LeoW

... a remote cloud service that I can then use FFS to sync the files to. It has its own built in copy and sync feature that is based on the very same rsync software that you are familiar with. it's also a command line only program that runs on windows Linux and Mac and is open source. you create a ...

hi LeoW, thanks for the answer.

I was able to make cwRsync work with ssh passing the cipher as a parameter, I just had to upgrade it to the latest version, it brings its own ssh.exe and related libraries..... however (there seems always to be a however!)....

Support for the fastest, though less ...

LeoW

... ssh server so I have it running on all windows and Linux computers. It's not a sync backup program like FFS.

Are you trying to decide between cwRsync and FreeFileSync? I until today did not know that cwRsync existed. Thanks. I may do a test install just out of curiosity.

FFS has a very robust ...

... My idea was to backup stuff from my newer Win 10 laptop to the second internal hard drive on this machine.

I've looked up for Windows-based rsync software with support for delta-transfer algorithms, and sure enough, I found a port of rsync that apparently was done using cygwin(an old free ...

... but not the actual folder itself) of the 03-DOCUMENTATION folder

I have set exclusions for 01-CAMERA and 02-SOUND, easy, but if i set an exclusion for 03-DOCUMENTATION i then can't add it's contents for inclusion like i would with rsync

anyway around this?

Screenshot 2023-05-30 at 18.54.13.png

Sounds good.

Since rsync also does not preallocate by default, this should be fine. I just had a quick look at rsync's manpage and there is a switch that has to be turned on specifically.

--preallocate This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual size before writing ...

Thank you for the reply :)

I can confirm that both rsync -av as well as cp -v write the files in a compressed manner to my btrfs filesystem (or rather the kernel/btrfs itself does it right).

In the meanwhile I found out the "faulty" behaviour happens not only with FFS, but also with the program that ...

... is also verified by the transfer speed which was way to high for zstd:6 - hence why I noticed it.

When copying the same data via a file manager or rsync (which I am using for the job right now) compression is applied correctly.

Is this a bug or am I missing some special setting in FFS?

Used ...

Thank you for your reply.
I am sad to know that its a FFS feature.
Perhaps there is a way to synchronize directory time like Robocopy or Rsync.
Now I use Rsync to fix dir time after FFS sync finished.

Before FreeFileSync, I used rsync to backup my local external drive (Linux Mint 19.3/exFat) across an ethernet link to another exFat drive running under Raspbian Linux.

FreeFileSync insists on re-copying all that data for some reason (14TB at 100 Mbps)

It appears to be a timestamp issue and I just ...

... computer B does not, computer B will try to delete directory XXX if I run FFS in synchronize mode. Therefore I only run in update mode.
I never run rsync or robocopy in purge/merge/delete mode because of this.

Other than that, FFS is pretty good. I like the interface and how it shows progress when ...

... files.

What makes FFS shine compared to other synchronizing tools is the interface and it works pretty much the same on all machines. I use:
rsync, FreeFileSync and timeshift for linux
Syncrhonize It, robocopy, FreeFileSync for Windoze
Chronosync, FreeFileSync and TimeMachine for Mac
On my Mac ...

FFS two-way synchronizations acts like it has a/purge or /mir function like in robocopy or --delete in rsync by default. If the left hand side doesn't have a file and the right hand side does, the right hand side is marked for deletion. I know about it now. It just caught me by surprise once.
My ...

FFS two-way synchronizations acts like it has a/purge or /mir function like in robocopy or --delete in rsync by default. If the left hand side doesn't have a file and the right hand side does, the right hand side is marked for deletion. I know about it now. It just caught me by surprise once.
My ...

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