slow remote/network access = "Cannot find the following folders"

[whinkle]

I'm having some difficulty with FreeFileSync working with very slow-to-connect remote network drives -- this is on a couple of different FreeFileSync Windows installations in entirely separate locations, so I don't think it's a per-computer issue. The problem is that the *automatic retry option* doesn't seem to work with these particular folder-not-found errors; see below.

What happens is that (almost always) FFS, upon looking for its sync source folders on the remote/network drive, errors out with this popup "Cannot find the following folders:" listing the folders on that slow-to-connect drive. When I manually click "RETRY", it goes ahead and works fine. This leads me to think that the automatic retry option SHOULD solve the problem for me, but it doesn't.

One installation (WinXP, trying to sync to a slow remote network drive) always goes through the full 20-second FFS timeout before this error occurs. The other (Win8.1, with a sluggish-to-awaken NAS drive) usually errors out immediately. In both cases, RETRY works (assuming the NAS in case #2 has finally spun up by then, else another RETRY of course). In both of these cases, the drives are referenced by UNC notations \\server\folder etc.

I did see that this issue was addressed back in 2013 under the "sluggish NAS" topic, when the timeout was extended from 10 to 20 seconds AND when the automatic retry option was added to FFS Options. But here's the mystery: the automatic retries don't seem to actually occur in these cases. I've tried various combinations of retry count and delay, and I don't see any sign that the retries are occurring -- the error responses are exactly the same as having no retries set up at all.

For example, if I set the case #1 FFS to "4 retries, 7 seconds delay" (and of course wait until the network connection is down again), I STILL only see the 20-second timeout then the not-found error popup. Not, say, 20+7+7+7+7 seconds. Or even 21 or 28.

Do automatic retries not apply to particular cases of "Cannot find the following folders:" ? Suggestions welcome.

[whinkle]

I'm having some difficulty with FreeFileSync working with very slow-to-connect remote network drives -- this is on a couple of different FreeFileSync Windows installations in entirely separate locations, so I don't think it's a per-computer issue. The problem is that the *automatic retry option* doesn't seem to work with these particular folder-not-found errors; see below.

What happens is that (almost always) FFS, upon looking for its sync source folders on the remote/network drive, errors out with this popup "Cannot find the following folders:" listing the folders on that slow-to-connect drive. When I manually click "RETRY", it goes ahead and works fine. This leads me to think that the automatic retry option SHOULD solve the problem for me, but it doesn't.

One installation (WinXP, trying to sync to a slow remote network drive) always goes through the full 20-second FFS timeout before this error occurs. The other (Win8.1, with a sluggish-to-awaken NAS drive) usually errors out immediately. In both cases, RETRY works (assuming the NAS in case #2 has finally spun up by then, else another RETRY of course). In both of these cases, the drives are referenced by UNC notations \\server\folder etc.

I did see that this issue was addressed back in 2013 under the "sluggish NAS" topic, when the timeout was extended from 10 to 20 seconds AND when the automatic retry option was added to FFS Options. But here's the mystery: the automatic retries don't seem to actually occur in these cases. I've tried various combinations of retry count and delay, and I don't see any sign that the retries are occurring -- the error responses are exactly the same as having no retries set up at all.

For example, if I set the case #1 FFS to "4 retries, 7 seconds delay" (and of course wait until the network connection is down again), I STILL only see the 20-second timeout then the not-found error popup. Not, say, 20+7+7+7+7 seconds. Or even 21 or 28.

Do automatic retries not apply to particular cases of "Cannot find the following folders:" ? Suggestions welcome.

I should add that the use-case problem is not that I'm too lazy to click RETRY, but that I can't count on scheduling / automating these syncs, as I'd like to, because of the transient "Cannot find the following folders:" errors.

[Zenju]

The auto-retry feature is currently not used for the comparison phase in non-batch mode, similarly like the ignore-errors settings. When it's used you'll see corresponding messages in the log.

[meier-1911-ingo]

Is there a chance that we will get auto-retry in the comparison phase?

I have a similiar situation as BHO, just different error messages like "Error 4: ... CreateFile" and so on. It seems to happen with small files only (.c, .h, .cpp, ...) in this case.
Just clicking on retry lets FFS continue (for some time: from a few seconds to "hours")

[Zenju]

Is there a chance that we will get auto-retry in the comparison phase?

Yes, this has been implemented in FreeFileSync 10.3.