Daisy chain batch jobs

[lattesweden]

Hi!

I have been using an old commercial filesync software called: "Fileback PC". It has served me good, but last update was in 2009 and it doesn't run well with Windows 11 even in compability mode, so I am trying to migrate to FreeFileSync, but I am having a problem with batch jobs.

If I make a batch job with for instance three different folder pairs and start the Compare function it compares all of them at once.

What I would like it to do is to compare folder pair one and then Syncronize that folder pair and then do compare and synchronization of folder pair two etc, like a daisy chain sequence.

This since I collect (aggregate) all my individual backup folders from the PC into one folder on my NAS and then from there also a copy that aggregated folder over onto an external drive for off line storage.

Is this daisy chain sequence setup possible to do in FreeFileSync?

Thanks and best regards from Sweden! / Anders

[xCSxXenon]

Sure is possible, just use the "post-sync" command option to have one sync config start another one and split the pairs into individual configurations

[Plerry]

If you want to run your left-right folder-pair Compare and Sync in sequence per pair, you can
either
• Run a batch/cmd file that starts your sync jobs in sequence, waiting for the previous job to end before starting the next sync job (via the "start" command). Something like

start "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[PathToYourFFSbatch-file]\YourBatch1.ffs_batch"
start "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[PathToYourFFSbatch-file]\YourBatch2.ffs_batch"
start "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[PathToYourFFSbatch-file]\YourBatch3.ffs_batch"


or
• Use the FFS option to run a post-sync command.
This can be configured in the FFS GUI in the Synchronization tab (F8) bottom-right. Choose On Completion and specify the command to be executed.
At the end of your first sync, launch sync#2 via the command line

"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[PathToYourFFSbatch-file]\YourBatch2.ffs_batch"


And at the end of your second sync, launch sync#3 via the command line

"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[PathToYourFFSbatch-file]\YourBatch3.ffs_batch"


Make sure to save your *.ffs_batch files after you added the On Completion command, and before actually running the (sequence of) syncs.

[lattesweden]

Thank you so much for this very helpful and extensive explaination!
Best regards from Sweden! / Anders

[lattesweden]

@Plerry

The Batch/cmd file approach you wrote about above does not seem to work for me, it starts all five of my FFS batch files at once when using the start command. I think it lacks an "on completion" similar type of event to wait for the current line to finish before starting the next line.

The second method you described works fine for me though!

[lattesweden]

Addition to the above, I had to add the "start" command also in the "On Completion" field within FFS before the path.

[Plerry]

As you noticed, I forgot to add the /w or /wait option to at least the first two start-commands in the batch script of my previous reply.
See e.g. https://ss64.com/nt/start.html

Do not add /w or /wait to the FFS On Completion command-line, when using that route.