I have recently switched to Fedora KDE from Windows 11 and am encountering a problem when i try to mirror 2 local external HDDs as i usually do. It scans the drives fine but after i press start, the estimated time goes up and up until it reaches like 13 days and then it just waits and never starts. I am using version 14.8.
I can see it is stuck on the same folder each time - I try deleting that folder and it just gets stuck on the next one alphabetically.
It's weird because FreeFileSync was working fine for the first 2 days of having Linux.
I have tried emptying the recycle bin and running the uninstall.sh file and reinstalling - neither changed anything.
Sorry the screenshot isn't great but if anyone wants more screenshots I am happy to do that.
Any help is so appreciated, thank you.
Edit: tried on version 13.4 and having the same issue.
Syncing stuck at a folder and not starting (linux)
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Edit: forgot to mention that I switched from NTFS to ext4 file systems for both of my drives. I used FFS in this process, copying over data from the NTFS drive to a newly formatted ext4 drive without issues.
Maybe this is a problem with ext4 not liking some of my files?
I also tried with some other smaller folders on my internal ssd and those tranferred fine so it's definitely something to do with my HDD drives.
Maybe this is a problem with ext4 not liking some of my files?
I also tried with some other smaller folders on my internal ssd and those tranferred fine so it's definitely something to do with my HDD drives.
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I/O error leads me to believe a bad connection, bad board on the drive, or a failing drive itself. I know you said deleting works, but are you able to manually copy anything from/to them?
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thank you for your response. i just tried manually copying stuff to each drive and i had no issues. theyre both just external drives connected with usb so i don't think connection issue is likely.. wondering if i should check the drive health somehow?I/O error leads me to believe a bad connection, bad board on the drive, or a failing drive itself. I know you said deleting works, but are you able to manually copy anything from/to them? xCSxXenon, 12 Mar 2026, 02:01
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Are you trying to copy over the same exact data, though?
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turns out this drive is failing, so that was the issue
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Tale as old as time. I hope you are able to get everything off or have other copies!
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yup, and the drive was only 7 months old too... will be switching to ironwolf internal HDDs now.
i did lose some data because while troubleshooting i changed this large folders name and mirrored, it then deleted the majority of data from that folder from the drive it was mirroring to and never ended up being able to write it again :,) .... it couldve been much worse but whoevers reading this please please keep a 3rd backup if youre doing stuff like this. keep in mind that if you change a folders name, your primary drive will delete this folder from the drive being mirrored to, and could fail before being able to write the new folder! the possibility of this specific situation never occurred to me!
i did lose some data because while troubleshooting i changed this large folders name and mirrored, it then deleted the majority of data from that folder from the drive it was mirroring to and never ended up being able to write it again :,) .... it couldve been much worse but whoevers reading this please please keep a 3rd backup if youre doing stuff like this. keep in mind that if you change a folders name, your primary drive will delete this folder from the drive being mirrored to, and could fail before being able to write the new folder! the possibility of this specific situation never occurred to me!
