Edit: replaced screenshot to fix an error in "Desired versioning result".
Currently, versioning only creates a copy of a versioned files' parent folder in the versioning root path, ignoring the rest of the file path in the backup folder. This makes it difficult to know where a versioned file was originally located, or to quickly restore versioned files to their original location. In addition, if multiple folders with the same name exist in various locations in the backup folder, the corresponding versioned files will all end up in one folder (shown in red below), even though they have nothing in common.
Example:
freefilesync_versioning_example.jpg (63.05 KiB) Viewed 28655 times
Please provide an option to retain the original file path in the versioning folder instead (see "Desired versioning result" above.
Thank you. I just tested this again after the latest update, and now seem to be getting the desired result, even without the include filters you suggested above. Is it possible that previously there were sometimes incomplete versioning paths related to the fix "Prevent files from being moved to versioning recursively" mentioned in the release notes?
Is there any documentation that describes the exact behaviour in more detail?
Ah, I misunderstood your suggestion. Instead of backing up C:\ with include paths, I was using two separate line items. The result should be identical, correct?
Apologies if I am slow to understand. I get that using a single folder pair with include filters is more straightforward. But, let's say I wanted to exclude a file type in one Personal, but not in Business. Wouldn't I have to use two folder pairs? How would the result be different in terms of versioning?
You could deal with that by excluding "\Personal\FolderToExclude" and that won't have any effect on the business folder. Either way, it sounds like two routes to the same destination
I want to second this request. While you can do it manually by simply duplicating the path on the right, thats very tedious and quickly becomes unreasonable with dozens and hundreds of files and/or folders.
Because it is doable manually i don't think this is any way a necassary or priority feature. But it would tremendously improve useability. It would also make it alot more inutive to new users if the right hand side was autofilled with these paths (though in a different root folder/drive). This is closer to behaviour of most other backup software ive used and not only inherently demonstrates to the user the relationship between right and left columns, but reduces the amount of steps for them to mess up while learning. As all they would need to do is drag folders/files to the left column, select the root directory for the right column and hit compare/synchronize.
... Instead of backing up C:\ with include paths, I was using two separate line items. The result should be identical, correct?mahimahi, 24 Nov 2023, 14:33
No, not correct.
By using your two left-right folder pairs and Versioning, you loose the Personal and Business separation in your Versioning location.
Example:
If you have a file D:\Backup\Personal\Folder1\File1 that will be deleted or updated by your FFS sync, in your two left-right folder approach that existing File1 will be Versioned as \Folder1\File1 in the root of your Versioning location, and can no longer be recognized as originating form your Personal folder tree. It gets even more confusing if there also exists a D:\Backup\Business\Folder1\ as any files in that folder requiring Versioning will also be versioned to the same \Folder1\ Versioning folder.
When you act as suggested by Zenju, those files will be Versioned into the \Personal\Folder1\ respectively \Business\Folder1\ folders in the root of your Versioning location.
Only for cases with very simple and similar left-right folder pairs (as per mahimahi's case above), it might be possible.
But for more complex left-right folder pair definitions, FFS would need to guess which part of the path in the left-right folder pairs it would need to "duplicate" in the Versioning folder. And guessing undoubtedly can/will results in ultimately undesired behavior.
@Plerry: you are right, thanks for your explanation. I mistakenly seemed to observe that versioning truncated the path immediately below the immediate parent folder of the versioned file (see the third line in my original post). That not being the case, my request is moot.
In a case where I do need multiple folder pairs, e.g. to set local file type filters, I simply have to also set versioning accordingly in local synchronization settings for each folder pair.
Snipaste_2023-11-27_12-51-47.png (198.96 KiB) Viewed 28547 times
Of course, it would be neat if FFS could warn against these types of conflicts, but I figure that would be difficult to implement.
Obviously, using local (=folder-pair specific) sync settings and then specifying a folder-pair specific Versioning location also solves the problem.
But in general (as also in your example) it is more work.
> In a case where I do need multiple folder pairs, e.g. to set local file type filters, ...
The need to use local Include/Exclude Filter settings (even more work) follows from you choice to use your multiple left-right base folder pairs; not the opposite.
In your example you can (as Zenju described) use a single left-right folder pair and a single (global) set of filter rules.
In Zenju's approach (single left-right folder pair), if you just want to sync the Personal and Business folders (with all of their content) and not all of C:\, you just need to replace the * (=everything) in the (global) Include Filter by \Personal\ or \Personal\* and \Business\ or \Business\*
If you e.g. only want to Include all pdf-files in Personal and only all docx-files in Business, you can change the Include Filter into \Personal\*.pdf and \Business\*.docx
or conversely, (in line with xCSxXenon's earlier reply) use the Exclude Filter to Exclude specific file types, e.g. add to the (global) Exclude Filter *.ini (will Exclude all ini-files from both Personal and Business) \Personal\*.bin (will Exclude all bin-files from Personal, but not from Business) \Business\*.jpg (will Exclude all jpg-files from Business, but not from Personal)
Thanks for the detailed answer and the solution for file type filters - I will go with a single folder pair given the advantages you mentioned.
That said, I can see several arguments for multiple pairs:
• As kodaxmax pointed out, it would seem more intuitive for new users and closer to the familiar behaviour of other backup software.
• It provides better visibility of what is being backed up, without having to drill down into settings.
• The option must exist for a reason. Is it only for limited cases like individual files or multiple drives?
• Finally, I may want to version some of my backed up folders, but not all of them. I don't see a way to do this except by using at least two folder pairs. Correct?
