Running multiple FFS batch jobs with Task Scheduler results in FFS UI pop up and need for input

[Skibidi Sink]

Hello,

I'm wondering if someone could clarify the situation I'll describe below, mostly out of curiosity - since for the case at hand I could simply create 3 separate tasks on the scheduler.

I followed "Task Scheduling" tutorial, making a small change, so that instead of running the batch job every 10 minutes, it would run every 24 hours (by changing the "begin the task" dropdown menu to "on a schedule" rather than "at log on").

Basically what I want to do is to automate 3 mirror backups (from the same folder drive C:, to a specific mirror folder in 3 different drives) that are already set as batch jobs and functional. Functional as in, if I manually click any of the 3 batch jobs they will do the appropriate backups, silently and in the background.

So the batch jobs are called something like:
(c to d).ffs_batch
(c to e).ffs_batch
(c to f).ffs_batch

First I tested setting Task Scheduler to do only one batch job.
So the "Action" tab in the task scheduler was:
"Start a program"
and "Program/script:" was:
"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe"
and "Arguments:" was:
"C:\Users\user\Desktop\Backup Sync\(c-to-d).ffs_batch"

At the appropriate time the task was run perfectly and silently.

I thought I could then simply add in the Arguments line the other 2 batch jobs and the arguments looked like:

"C:\Users\user\Desktop\Backup Sync\(c-to-d).ffs_batch" "C:\Users\user\Desktop\Backup Sync\(c-to-e).ffs_batch" "C:\Users\user\Desktop\Backup Sync\(c-to-f).ffs_batch"

However when the time for the task came, the FreeFileSync UI actually popped up showing me the two columns and what would be changed, etc and waiting for my input to click on "Synchronize, Mirror".

I'm confused because each of the 3 individual batch jobs run fine, silently and in the background once I double click them, and when I created a task running just one, it also went fine and silent, but by adding the 2 other in the task scheduler argument line caused the UI to pop and wait for my input, both of which are undesirable.

I'm unsure whether this is:

1) Caused by my attempt to add all 3 batch jobs in the same argument line.

Since the tutorial stated that paths with spaces should be added between ""'s because otherwise a space would separate extra arguments, I assumed I could then add the other batch jobs as extra arguments, rather than creating 3 different Task Scheduler tasks.

or 2) if there is some further configuration I'm missing in FreeFileSync.

Which if it's the case, I also don't understand, since the batch jobs when ran individually work fine and silently.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Skibidi Sink]

I just realized that from the open FFS UI, I could then save the 3 batch syncs that were just done to a single batch job, and schedule that batch job instead, which works for my purposes.

Would still be interested to learn why it went how it went when I added 3 arguments to the scheduler, in case someone who knows ends up reading this.

[Zenju]

https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=command-line

When more than one configuration file is provided, FreeFileSync will merge everything into a single configuration with multiple folder pairs and start in GUI mode:

That's basically for consistency with GUI mode when you select multiple configurations manually.

[xCSxXenon]

Yep, essentially there doesn't exist a syntax to run multiple ffs_batch syncs from a single command line. This can be solved they way you did it (combining to one large sync), having the Task run multiple single commands, or having the Task run a batch script that runs the multiple single-line commands.

[Skibidi Sink]

That clears it up, thank you.

[Zenju]

Yep, essentially there doesn't exist a syntax to run multiple ffs_batch syncs from a single command line.

I'm wondering if there should be, e.g.:
1. multpile *.ffs_gui files passed => merge and start in GUI mode
2. multiple *.ffs_batch files passed => merge and start in batch mode
3. Combination of *.ffs_gui and *.ffs_batch files passed => ???

[xCSxXenon]

1. Agree
2. Agree
3. I feel like the inclusion of any .ffs_gui should cause it to start in GUI mode
Seems intuitive for all three options. You could also add flags,
--gui and --nogui
to override the default behavior