I'm switching to other software after my experience with this forum (see "this is the rudest forum software I have ever used"). But let me try one more time to add this here, since I already wrote the post. My warm sentiments are no longer valid, and I'm no longer pursuing this solution, but the rest may still be useful to someone...
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FFS is a wonderful utility. After having issues with some big-league backup software, I decided to do file syncs to external drives for some files. And for that it has worked like a champ. It is impressively well-engineered, intuitive, solid.
I decided to try it with an FTP server on my phone to simplify transferring photos and backing up files and databases. Yes, I know that you can pay Google and Microsoft until the day you die and they will gladly store all your stuff on their servers. But that's not my goal.
I have been doing backups and transferring photos from my phone with WinSCP, which is another well-engineered tool (based partly on PuTTY and FileZilla, two other good tools). WinSCP in fact has its own sync option but that's not its main purpose and FFS is much clearer for that, which is nice if you don't enjoy accidentally deleting things you actually need to keep. (I've donated to both projects. I just understand that each has a different primary focus.)
FFS does connect to the FTP server running on my phone, however it's a bit glitchy, constantly interrupting me. It keeps saying "Cannot read file"..."CURLE_OPERATION_TIMEOUT: Operation timed out after [timeout] milliseconds with 0 bytes received [curl_easy_perform]"...
Given that this operation could take an hour or hours depending on the speed, I would have to be constantly monitoring it for it to work. I'd rather be able to tell it start and walk away, as with WinSCP. But with the extra sync functionality of FFS. I know, I know, I'm sssooo demanding. But I know that Zenju has high standards and expectations for this software!
There might be a more elegant fix. But in any case I think that there is a very easy fix. Setting the timeout does not seem to help much. Even at 120 seconds when the operation fails, it fails. It doesn't matter if the timeout is 10, 30, or 120 seconds. However, when I Retry it generally works. So having the ability to set the number of retries could be very useful. And possibly make it work well enough for me without anything further. For-loop to the rescue! Anyway.
I don't see a good reason not to retry by default, especially when there are multiple threads running. Some may want to be notified. But I know this FTP server setup from phone over wireless is perhaps not the most standard one, so I'm not shocked that some retries are required. As long as the file transfers intact, that's all I care about.
In this case even though I have 5 FTP threads running, they all come to a halt when one of them encounters this error. So it's not like 1 thread stops and 4 keep going in the background helping the task progress. They all stop.
I also have to remember to hit Retry each time rather than Ignore. Although it's true that the way FFS works, I could probably ignore all the errors and then re-sync again, and clean up some of that mess. Although there are advantages to incremental and differential backups when it comes to versions, I appreciate that FFS is so neat and clean when something doesn't finish syncing. You just restart and pick up where you left off and it's worked so wonderfully for me.
Now, it's certainly possible that I could tweak something on the FTP server end (phone end), or use different Android server software. At the moment I'm using FTPS although that's overkill for a home network, for what I'm doing. I'm using WiFi Pro FTP Server which is simple and straightforward and has given me no problems so far that I know about. It's possible that WinSCP hides some screwed up operations of some kind -- I haven't dug deep -- but it's worked well for what I've done until now.
I could try something like Rclone, or use regular FTP and use Windows' FTP support. Maybe. But it seems this would be good functionality to have right in FFS.
I have a smaller observation. The timeout in FFS doesn't actually change until you change to a different sync profile and back, or otherwise close the connection and start over. I assume that restarting FFS would also work. So you think you've changed the timeout, but the error still comes back 10000 milliseconds. It's handy that it's a verbose error, unlike ones that say Apple like to give you that say things like, "An unknown error has occurred."
As I write this, it's periodically making that "reminder" sound making me choose Ignore, Ignore All, Retry, or Cancel. But what I really want is something like "Retry All X Times Each". 10 would probably be more than enough. 2 is usually enough. But I'm more concerned that the operation finish without me watching it continuously than I am about how long it takes, so even 50 retries at 20 seconds each would be fine.
For the time being it looks like this method of sync may not work for my phone, as-is. But it looks to be vverrryy tantalizingly close to working. Once it gets up to speed with multiple FTP connections it's about as fast as an external drive. The speed oscillates quite a lot with TTS, but I'm transferring a wide variety of files. I can't find any rhyme nor reason as to why it chokes on one file but not other.
For whatever reason Google and Microsoft made it sort of a pain to use the standard USB connection for normal file transfers from Android, and I have found some wireless methods to be better (not to mention more convenient as you could take a call while it's going). There are probably other ways to set this up, but I do think that this will work eventually.
Anyway, I am very grateful to Zenju for creating such a useful tool. It's clear how much time and thought has gone into it. Software engineering is a lot more difficult than it may look. I mean, not just the coding, but designing it so that it works for humans.
So thanks!
Dan
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/\ no longer my view
last try: bug? / functionality: FTP sync from phone pauses a lot
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Well, it seems that the developer doesn't monitor this forum. I'm surprised, it's not the impression I got before.
In any case, I've messed with this a little more. I'm not as keen on this software as I was before, so I'm open to new solutions, but what I discovered is that the retry option is already there, it's just that the options for FFS are in so many different places that it's confusing.
They're within the Filter icon, within the Cloud icon, and within the Options dialog in the Tools menu.
For some reason parallel file operations and timeout options are located within the Cloud icon dialog box, whereas to set retries you have to click the Filter icon and then choose Comparison and then have the keen eye to spot "Automatic retry" at the bottom.
Retries have little to nothing to do with filtering or comparison so why this setting is located here I do not know. It would be handy to be able to set it after the operation has started. There's already an indicator during the operation that says "Automatic retry (25x)" or whatever you have it set to.
I'm not sure why the FTP in FFS has to do retries, whereas WinSCP seemingly does not. FFS uses cURL for FTP, whereas WinSCP uses the code from FileZilla.
I also get a weird retry error (literally, weird):
"Error: Cannot read file ftp://[my FTP IP]/sync.ffs_db CURLE_FTP_WEIRD_PASV_REPLY: Bad PASV/EPSV response: 550 550..."
The error is cut off at the right, but 550 means it can't find the file. That's an FFS database file, but I don't know why it is looking for that since the option to create a database file is not on, and the file does not exist.
In any case, the error eventually goes away; a retry eventually works, I'm not sure why. Was the file created? I don't see it anywhere. So I don't understand either the operation or the error there. But the cURL error that includes "WEIRD" is sort of fun. It suggests that the server sent a response it didn't understand.
The operation is now running, though. It's 6% complete, so it's going rather slowly. WinSCP is slower with smaller files as well, but FFS does seem to be a bit slower overall, with similar settings. One solution is to do the initial backup with WinSCP and the syncing with FFS, although WinSCP has decent syncing choices of its own.
I do appreciate the efforts of this author. The software is good. As with a lot of software, as it evolves, sometimes features are added in funny places. Perhaps eventually the settings can be consolidated as right now they can be confusing.
In any case, I've messed with this a little more. I'm not as keen on this software as I was before, so I'm open to new solutions, but what I discovered is that the retry option is already there, it's just that the options for FFS are in so many different places that it's confusing.
They're within the Filter icon, within the Cloud icon, and within the Options dialog in the Tools menu.
For some reason parallel file operations and timeout options are located within the Cloud icon dialog box, whereas to set retries you have to click the Filter icon and then choose Comparison and then have the keen eye to spot "Automatic retry" at the bottom.
Retries have little to nothing to do with filtering or comparison so why this setting is located here I do not know. It would be handy to be able to set it after the operation has started. There's already an indicator during the operation that says "Automatic retry (25x)" or whatever you have it set to.
I'm not sure why the FTP in FFS has to do retries, whereas WinSCP seemingly does not. FFS uses cURL for FTP, whereas WinSCP uses the code from FileZilla.
I also get a weird retry error (literally, weird):
"Error: Cannot read file ftp://[my FTP IP]/sync.ffs_db CURLE_FTP_WEIRD_PASV_REPLY: Bad PASV/EPSV response: 550 550..."
The error is cut off at the right, but 550 means it can't find the file. That's an FFS database file, but I don't know why it is looking for that since the option to create a database file is not on, and the file does not exist.
In any case, the error eventually goes away; a retry eventually works, I'm not sure why. Was the file created? I don't see it anywhere. So I don't understand either the operation or the error there. But the cURL error that includes "WEIRD" is sort of fun. It suggests that the server sent a response it didn't understand.
The operation is now running, though. It's 6% complete, so it's going rather slowly. WinSCP is slower with smaller files as well, but FFS does seem to be a bit slower overall, with similar settings. One solution is to do the initial backup with WinSCP and the syncing with FFS, although WinSCP has decent syncing choices of its own.
I do appreciate the efforts of this author. The software is good. As with a lot of software, as it evolves, sometimes features are added in funny places. Perhaps eventually the settings can be consolidated as right now they can be confusing.
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Didn't read your wall of text because I don't want to, but FFS does have the option to set retry count and delay
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I didn't read your silly, pointless reply, xCSxXenon, because I don't want to.
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In any case, while this seems like a sort of a silly forum so far, and my initial love of this tool and community are on the wane, here's a followup, although it's possible that like xCSxXenon, no one will read it. (He's made 4,401 posts to a community about a file sync program, but he posts a reply without reading the question, or providing a specific answer? That is curious!) Since this appears to be a forum where the original poster must answer his own questions, here we go...
This operation did complete. So if anyone else is interested in using FFS to back up their phone via FTP (that is, local WiFi), here are some observations for those people (not for xCSxXenon, who doesn't read):
- As I said before, locate the retry settings, which as I already mentioned are hidden for some reason within the Filter icon, and then the Comparison tab, at the bottom under "Retry count". I used a Retry count of 25 and a Delay of 10.
- I STRONGLY suggest going to Tools / Options and turning off the notification sound for "Unattended error message". This is the only software I use that by default does an annoying warning sound every minute or so when there is a dialog popping up. I don't know who wants that, but I don't. This is file sync, not fire extinguishing, it doesn't need my attention at every moment!
- Click the Cloud icon -- like I said, settings are all over the place -- and change the "Parallel file operations (Connections)" to at least 3. I think it's easier to find the optimal setting for this by using WinSCP or FileZilla, which have more robust FTP.
- Note that for very large folders with lots of files (e.g. photos) it's possible it will help to set the "Access timeout" to more than 10 seconds. That setting is within the Cloud icon dialog box, but in the middle on the right.
Unless you've rooted your phone, this type of backup will not back up literally everything on your phone, but it will back up photos and documents and music and everything that is outwardly accessible on the phone. And in this case it was only about 17 GB per hour. However, direct USB connection is often slower and more erratic. And this can be done wirelessly. In fact, using FFS it's very easy to pause if you leave your WiFi network. So you can keep using your phone as normal within your WiFi network and it will just back up in the background.
As I said, I used a simple app called WiFi Pro FTP Server, but there are others. For this app, telling Android to allow unlimited background usage is helpful so that Android doesn't cut off the connection. (That's under app settings or battery optimization settings.)
Other options for backing up a phone to a local hard drive or to an SSD include other Windows file sync software, or backing up from Android either to a network drive or directly to an SSD. I know that some people use FolderSync on Android for sync operations within Android. I cannot vouch for it at this point but may try something like that later, directly to an SSD or possibly to the cloud. I have a little gadget that lets me latch an SSD to my phone, for instance for long video recording, and that could be helpful.
This is a strange forum. I don't think anyone has gotten anything out of my posting here, including me, but I just thought I would share my experience on the off-chance that is useful to anyone. Even if that use is providing a snarky response. xCSxXenon to a Vietnam Vet at the Vietnam Memorial: "Didn't read your wall of text because I don't want to."
This operation did complete. So if anyone else is interested in using FFS to back up their phone via FTP (that is, local WiFi), here are some observations for those people (not for xCSxXenon, who doesn't read):
- As I said before, locate the retry settings, which as I already mentioned are hidden for some reason within the Filter icon, and then the Comparison tab, at the bottom under "Retry count". I used a Retry count of 25 and a Delay of 10.
- I STRONGLY suggest going to Tools / Options and turning off the notification sound for "Unattended error message". This is the only software I use that by default does an annoying warning sound every minute or so when there is a dialog popping up. I don't know who wants that, but I don't. This is file sync, not fire extinguishing, it doesn't need my attention at every moment!
- Click the Cloud icon -- like I said, settings are all over the place -- and change the "Parallel file operations (Connections)" to at least 3. I think it's easier to find the optimal setting for this by using WinSCP or FileZilla, which have more robust FTP.
- Note that for very large folders with lots of files (e.g. photos) it's possible it will help to set the "Access timeout" to more than 10 seconds. That setting is within the Cloud icon dialog box, but in the middle on the right.
Unless you've rooted your phone, this type of backup will not back up literally everything on your phone, but it will back up photos and documents and music and everything that is outwardly accessible on the phone. And in this case it was only about 17 GB per hour. However, direct USB connection is often slower and more erratic. And this can be done wirelessly. In fact, using FFS it's very easy to pause if you leave your WiFi network. So you can keep using your phone as normal within your WiFi network and it will just back up in the background.
As I said, I used a simple app called WiFi Pro FTP Server, but there are others. For this app, telling Android to allow unlimited background usage is helpful so that Android doesn't cut off the connection. (That's under app settings or battery optimization settings.)
Other options for backing up a phone to a local hard drive or to an SSD include other Windows file sync software, or backing up from Android either to a network drive or directly to an SSD. I know that some people use FolderSync on Android for sync operations within Android. I cannot vouch for it at this point but may try something like that later, directly to an SSD or possibly to the cloud. I have a little gadget that lets me latch an SSD to my phone, for instance for long video recording, and that could be helpful.
This is a strange forum. I don't think anyone has gotten anything out of my posting here, including me, but I just thought I would share my experience on the off-chance that is useful to anyone. Even if that use is providing a snarky response. xCSxXenon to a Vietnam Vet at the Vietnam Memorial: "Didn't read your wall of text because I don't want to."
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- Joined: 11 Jun 2019
LOL
Quite an overreaction it seems, but sure thing bud. At least the Vietnam Memorial has useful and intriguing info
I read enough of your post to find one question, and I answered it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Quite an overreaction it seems, but sure thing bud. At least the Vietnam Memorial has useful and intriguing info
I read enough of your post to find one question, and I answered it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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You didn't answer the question, which was how to do it. I answered my own question, because no one on this little-traveled forum helped out.
I'm moving on to other solutions, I hope. This forum software itself is rude, and while I love and appreciate open-source software, and FFS is well-designed to be sure, the soft spot that I had for the software is gone. And I think that there are more flexible solutions out there.
I did walk people through how to use wifi FTP to do a fast, convenient sync backup of a phone. It does work well!
Sorry, but for better or for worse, walls of text are how literate people have picked up useful information since the printing press was invented in 1440 (and for 'leets, even before that). Don't shoot the messenger.
If FFS had made this process easier, and didn't have options scattered randomly around instead of all in one obvious place, then no wall of text have been needed, and no question would have needed to be asked. Not that I accomplished anything by asking it here, unless some future sojourner finds this and wants to try it. I would make a new concise thread about it, but I don't sense a lot of interest in problem-solving in this forum.
Fortunately FFS seems to be relatively foolproof for the basic uses for which it was intended, and that is to its credit.
I'm moving on to other solutions, I hope. This forum software itself is rude, and while I love and appreciate open-source software, and FFS is well-designed to be sure, the soft spot that I had for the software is gone. And I think that there are more flexible solutions out there.
I did walk people through how to use wifi FTP to do a fast, convenient sync backup of a phone. It does work well!
Sorry, but for better or for worse, walls of text are how literate people have picked up useful information since the printing press was invented in 1440 (and for 'leets, even before that). Don't shoot the messenger.
If FFS had made this process easier, and didn't have options scattered randomly around instead of all in one obvious place, then no wall of text have been needed, and no question would have needed to be asked. Not that I accomplished anything by asking it here, unless some future sojourner finds this and wants to try it. I would make a new concise thread about it, but I don't sense a lot of interest in problem-solving in this forum.
Fortunately FFS seems to be relatively foolproof for the basic uses for which it was intended, and that is to its credit.
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- Joined: 22 Aug 2012
> ... no one on this little-traveled forum helped out
More likely, none of the frequent travelers (like myself) is
• familiar with the problem and knows the answer.
(Would you rather have multiple "don't know" or "can't help you out here" replies?)
and/or
• is willing to waste their time (as a volunteer!) to plow through tons of text, to identify the question or problem that is lurking in there, if the author of that text is apparently not willing or capable to condense it down to its essence.
More likely, none of the frequent travelers (like myself) is
• familiar with the problem and knows the answer.
(Would you rather have multiple "don't know" or "can't help you out here" replies?)
and/or
• is willing to waste their time (as a volunteer!) to plow through tons of text, to identify the question or problem that is lurking in there, if the author of that text is apparently not willing or capable to condense it down to its essence.
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Thanks sdanffs, your writeup I thought was thorough and useful to someone perusing the forums looking for answers. Although I cannot offer any help with the ftp side of things, I am now curious about this odd behaviour you're experiencing as it is similar to my little issue that I've discovered with a particular folder on my android device.
Nevertheless, this forum hopefully will provide some input to those that may be experiencing similar issues.
Nevertheless, this forum hopefully will provide some input to those that may be experiencing similar issues.
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- Joined: 24 Jun 2025
Thanks adamsgs2009, I appreciate your constructive input here. Wi-fi FTP is a great way to transfer files from a phone to a computer. It was in the spirit of getting that working that I posted here. FFS is well-designed software that does many things well for simple tasks, but its FTP configuration is needlessly confusing.
The other replies are why I don't always enjoy posting on such forums. I was trying to share what was relevant. The first response I got here was from the forum software which addressed me, "Listen, spammer, this forum is actively moderated: If you think your crap will go unnoticed you must be delusional."
I was trying to add something constructive to this community. I praised the software and asked for feedback and then shared what I thought could be helpful to others. For the most part that was not appreciated here. I was lulled by the software author's apparently friendly demeanor, including pictures of animals instead of ads and all that stuff, so I mistakenly thought that support for FFS would be friendly, instead of somewhere between rude and nonexistent. I actually thought that he was looking for feature suggestions and ways to improve the software, but I think I was wrong.
He said "thanks to all of the users reporting feature requests and bug reports that help to improve FreeFileSync even further."
On the contrary, Plerry said that "volunteers" reading my posts would be "wasting their time."
I was volunteering my time as well. I'm a volunteer on this forum. And I'm the only one who posted anything useful in this thread. It would have been useful to me had I read it before trying my own transfers. If you don't want to read my "tons of text" because it's my job to "condense it down its essence" rather than accurately reproduce the issues, then don't read it. I could do without the pointless replies that are criticizing the poster rather than adding anything of use. You guys are the ones writing text that has no valuable content for others.
I would have edited my first post in this thread, as I said earlier, but the forum software again thwarts me there. It is not editable.
And as I'm volunteering time here that is not wanted, I'm not going to start a new thread. If you want to do that as a volunteer, then "waste your time" reading what I wrote, and condense it yourself. Most of the walkthrough is in the post with boldface from June 29th.
As for me, I've been looking for other software, in part because I don't like the weird configuration for FFS, in part because I don't think it's going to change (I don't think that contributors care what I've said), and in part because other authors and forums are much friendlier and more helpful than what I've found on here.
The other replies are why I don't always enjoy posting on such forums. I was trying to share what was relevant. The first response I got here was from the forum software which addressed me, "Listen, spammer, this forum is actively moderated: If you think your crap will go unnoticed you must be delusional."
I was trying to add something constructive to this community. I praised the software and asked for feedback and then shared what I thought could be helpful to others. For the most part that was not appreciated here. I was lulled by the software author's apparently friendly demeanor, including pictures of animals instead of ads and all that stuff, so I mistakenly thought that support for FFS would be friendly, instead of somewhere between rude and nonexistent. I actually thought that he was looking for feature suggestions and ways to improve the software, but I think I was wrong.
He said "thanks to all of the users reporting feature requests and bug reports that help to improve FreeFileSync even further."
On the contrary, Plerry said that "volunteers" reading my posts would be "wasting their time."
I was volunteering my time as well. I'm a volunteer on this forum. And I'm the only one who posted anything useful in this thread. It would have been useful to me had I read it before trying my own transfers. If you don't want to read my "tons of text" because it's my job to "condense it down its essence" rather than accurately reproduce the issues, then don't read it. I could do without the pointless replies that are criticizing the poster rather than adding anything of use. You guys are the ones writing text that has no valuable content for others.
I would have edited my first post in this thread, as I said earlier, but the forum software again thwarts me there. It is not editable.
And as I'm volunteering time here that is not wanted, I'm not going to start a new thread. If you want to do that as a volunteer, then "waste your time" reading what I wrote, and condense it yourself. Most of the walkthrough is in the post with boldface from June 29th.
As for me, I've been looking for other software, in part because I don't like the weird configuration for FFS, in part because I don't think it's going to change (I don't think that contributors care what I've said), and in part because other authors and forums are much friendlier and more helpful than what I've found on here.
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I hear you - I typically shy away from forums for the same reason. Experience and all... anyways.
Do you think you can post what software you end up using if it's successful? It'd help users like me in case we need to explore other options.
Thanks, and happy hunting!
Do you think you can post what software you end up using if it's successful? It'd help users like me in case we need to explore other options.
Thanks, and happy hunting!
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If you quote me, don't create a faux sentiment by leaving out the relevant part.On the contrary, Plerry said that "volunteers" reading my posts would be "wasting their time."sdanffs, 11 Jul 2025, 15:51
I wrote that frequent travelers (like myself) are likely not
willing to waste their time (as a volunteer!) to plow through tons text to identify the question or problem that is lurking in there, if the author of that text is apparently not willing or capable to condense it down to its essence.
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- Joined: 24 Jun 2025
This is why some forums can be annoying. Not all. But this one can be. I did condense it down. I linked to it. adamgs2009 thanked me for it. Some people here weirdly seem to want one sentence answers to questions that do not have one-sentence answers. And not only that, but rather than contribute, they feel a need to criticize for not distilling answers to their satisfaction. I not only am volunteering my time to write these, but also donated, so actually have paid for the privilege of this.
Sorry, if FFS did FTP right, then there would be a simple one-sentence answer. The entire reason I came here in the first place is that FFS doesn't work as elegantly with FTP as WinSCP and other tools. I have a one-sentence answer for WinSCP. Just log in to your FTP and transfer the files and voila, you're done!
An answer should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
If people here spent more time reading questions and less time criticizing, then forum might be better! Just an opinion.
I'm not going to continue that silly dialog any longer. But to adamgs2009, yes, likewise, if you find a solution, by all means post it, I guess here, I don't know, it seems there would be a better place.
I have some other thoughts that I'll add in a moment. I'd rather keep this relevant rather than nitpicky.
Sorry, if FFS did FTP right, then there would be a simple one-sentence answer. The entire reason I came here in the first place is that FFS doesn't work as elegantly with FTP as WinSCP and other tools. I have a one-sentence answer for WinSCP. Just log in to your FTP and transfer the files and voila, you're done!
An answer should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
If people here spent more time reading questions and less time criticizing, then forum might be better! Just an opinion.
I'm not going to continue that silly dialog any longer. But to adamgs2009, yes, likewise, if you find a solution, by all means post it, I guess here, I don't know, it seems there would be a better place.
I have some other thoughts that I'll add in a moment. I'd rather keep this relevant rather than nitpicky.
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- Joined: 24 Jun 2025
I know it seems silly to write this here. But perhaps it will be useful to someone who doesn't mind reading, you know, text. Walls or otherwise.
First, I do think that FFS is a decent solution for this if you get it set up, which is still not that hard (for those willing to read, lol). I don't dislike FFS. I just don't know that it does everything I want to do.
Some other simple sync tools along these lines include SyncFolders (free or donate) and Synchredible (free or $40), neither of which I have tried.
I may wind up making things more complicated before I make them simpler. I'll be messing around with things for different purposes. One tool I can say is super-cool is the open-source Rclone, if you haven't tried it.
It may seem intimidating for some as a command-line tool, but it lets you mount cloud drives or FTP sites on Windows, Mac, or Linux (or BSD). It's not that hard to set up. Once you mount a drive, you can use any files-based software to sync or copy. (See also: viewer, browser, GUI.
The viewer is by Bdrive which also make some sync tools, though I haven't tried them: CloudSync, NetDrive. They do have email support, and replied to me, unlike FreeFileSync. Commercial tools such as NetDrive and MountainDuck also do more or less what Rclone does, possibly easier for the beginner.)
I already mentioned that WinSCP can do sync. It supports FTP, FTPS, SCP, SFTP, WebDAV, and S3.
Cyberduck supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure / OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
SyncBack from 2BrightSparks has a free version of a sync tool that supports FTP (although I would have to upgrade to the $45 version for my setup which is using FTPS).
If you set up Rclone to connect to say an FTP server on your phone, that would open up using any free files-based backup utility, such as Restic (try a frontend or other addon). Or any file sync utility.
The advantage of a backup tool is that it gives you the ability to do incremental or differential backups, so you have all versions stored. However, a disk-image backup tool like Paragon or O&O will generally only let you back up to a network drive, not from one. It's expecting a physical local drive to create an image from.
It looks like IDrive's tool might include files-level backup, and possibly Hasleo and AOMEI Backupper. But anyway they can be found.
Windows used to have a general-purpose Windows Backup tool, but now it's basically just an ad for OneDrive, since getting people to use OneDrive more seems to be one of Microsoft's main recent obsessions.
I've tried a lot of backup tools, and they seem to be less reliable than they used to be. That's one point in favor of FFS, which especially using local disks seems to be quite reliable. If it works for people, there's no reason to use something different.
But here are some sophisticated sync tools that I think look very interesting:
SyncThing
PhotoPrism (for photos only, of course)
SeaFile
overkill for most:
NextCloud
Pydio
MicroK8s
Instead of FTP, you could set up a WebDAV server on the phone. I haven't tried this so I'm not going to vouch for any of them. However it's easy to add a WebDAV location in Windows.
Synchredible has built-in support for WebDAV.
Since this is a FreeFileSync forum, after all, 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 FreeFileSync, although some are better replacements than others.
GoodSync has free and subscription (yuck) options.
TeraCopy is listed there but is not really a sync tool.
Some other ideas
Unison
Windows versions of the basic command-line Rsync tool
Kopia
UrBackup does incremental and syncs
self-hosted things of all kinds like sync and web-based file managers
Allway Sync
I don't know, Google, Microsoft, other standard solutions, if you want to be boring
I haven't settled on any one thing, but there are a lot of choices out there. This thread seems to be a little out of hand by now. But perhaps something here will be useful, or someone has a suggestion. Or, heck, if criticizing the length of this reply makes you happy, then go for it!
First, I do think that FFS is a decent solution for this if you get it set up, which is still not that hard (for those willing to read, lol). I don't dislike FFS. I just don't know that it does everything I want to do.
Some other simple sync tools along these lines include SyncFolders (free or donate) and Synchredible (free or $40), neither of which I have tried.
I may wind up making things more complicated before I make them simpler. I'll be messing around with things for different purposes. One tool I can say is super-cool is the open-source Rclone, if you haven't tried it.
It may seem intimidating for some as a command-line tool, but it lets you mount cloud drives or FTP sites on Windows, Mac, or Linux (or BSD). It's not that hard to set up. Once you mount a drive, you can use any files-based software to sync or copy. (See also: viewer, browser, GUI.
The viewer is by Bdrive which also make some sync tools, though I haven't tried them: CloudSync, NetDrive. They do have email support, and replied to me, unlike FreeFileSync. Commercial tools such as NetDrive and MountainDuck also do more or less what Rclone does, possibly easier for the beginner.)
I already mentioned that WinSCP can do sync. It supports FTP, FTPS, SCP, SFTP, WebDAV, and S3.
Cyberduck supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure / OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
SyncBack from 2BrightSparks has a free version of a sync tool that supports FTP (although I would have to upgrade to the $45 version for my setup which is using FTPS).
If you set up Rclone to connect to say an FTP server on your phone, that would open up using any free files-based backup utility, such as Restic (try a frontend or other addon). Or any file sync utility.
The advantage of a backup tool is that it gives you the ability to do incremental or differential backups, so you have all versions stored. However, a disk-image backup tool like Paragon or O&O will generally only let you back up to a network drive, not from one. It's expecting a physical local drive to create an image from.
It looks like IDrive's tool might include files-level backup, and possibly Hasleo and AOMEI Backupper. But anyway they can be found.
Windows used to have a general-purpose Windows Backup tool, but now it's basically just an ad for OneDrive, since getting people to use OneDrive more seems to be one of Microsoft's main recent obsessions.
I've tried a lot of backup tools, and they seem to be less reliable than they used to be. That's one point in favor of FFS, which especially using local disks seems to be quite reliable. If it works for people, there's no reason to use something different.
But here are some sophisticated sync tools that I think look very interesting:
SyncThing
PhotoPrism (for photos only, of course)
SeaFile
overkill for most:
NextCloud
Pydio
MicroK8s
Instead of FTP, you could set up a WebDAV server on the phone. I haven't tried this so I'm not going to vouch for any of them. However it's easy to add a WebDAV location in Windows.
Synchredible has built-in support for WebDAV.
Since this is a FreeFileSync forum, after all, 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 FreeFileSync, although some are better replacements than others.
GoodSync has free and subscription (yuck) options.
TeraCopy is listed there but is not really a sync tool.
Some other ideas
Unison
Windows versions of the basic command-line Rsync tool
Kopia
UrBackup does incremental and syncs
self-hosted things of all kinds like sync and web-based file managers
Allway Sync
I don't know, Google, Microsoft, other standard solutions, if you want to be boring
I haven't settled on any one thing, but there are a lot of choices out there. This thread seems to be a little out of hand by now. But perhaps something here will be useful, or someone has a suggestion. Or, heck, if criticizing the length of this reply makes you happy, then go for it!
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- Joined: 5 Jan 2024
I can vouch for kopia As being a good open source cross-platform Backup tool capable of doing snapshots.
It has a platform that is built on rclone for mounting Cloud drives so it supports a lot of cloud drives.
It has a platform that is built on rclone for mounting Cloud drives so it supports a lot of cloud drives.
