Suddenly in Linux, Cannot write file .../sync.ffs_lock

[wbrells]

I've been using FreeFileSync (now the donation edition) for quite awhile on my MX Linux system without problems. Now I'm getting the message

Cannot write file "/media/wayneb/Meanderthal/M_Pictures/sync.ffs_lock".
EACCES: Permission denied [open]

when I attempt an UPDATE sync based on FILE SIZE. Here the destination directory (/media/...) is a USB connected hard drive. The sync.ffs_lock file does not exist and I just noticed that the files in the M_Pictures directory are READ ONLY! I don't know how/when these files became RO, but is this likely to be the cause of the error message? In any case, should I change the permissions to Read & Write?

Thanks for any comments/suggestions!

Wayne

[xCSxXenon]

Yes, in order to write to that directory, the write permission must be granted

[wbrells]

Agreed! After changing directory and file permissions to READ & WRITE I was able to 'sync' my files. I really can't understand how a whole bunch of files got changed to READ ONLY. I just hope it doesn't happen again!

Thanks for your help, Wayne

[JuergenK]

I have seen a similar problem. I tried to mirror one external HDD to another one. So far this has always worked without any issue. I'm suddenly getting an error message telling me that the destination drive is read-only. I never set any drive or folder to read-only.

I got a hint from some older posts here in this forum. The problems seems to be a lock which is done by FFS during the Compare step. When I do a Compare first and then try to Synchronize I get this read-only problem. After a reboot of the system I Synchronized without the Compare step and everything worked fine.

This problem seems to be specific to Linux (Linux Mint 22) and FFS 13.7. The latest version of FFS on MacOS does not have this problem.

Best regards
Juergen

[xCSxXenon]

I got a hint from some older posts here in this forum. The problems seems to be a lock which is done by FFS during the Compare step. When I do a Compare first and then try to Synchronize I get this read-only problem. After a reboot of the system I Synchronized without the Compare step and everything worked fine.

You can't synchronize without comparing first. If you click the synchronize button, it automatically runs a compare first, if one hasn't been performed already. This seems to be a red herring. FFS doesn't set drive/mountpoints to be read-only or not, that is done by the OS typically