Scheduled task triggers at log on but does not repeat

[sectionV]

Hi, I have set up a FreeFileSync batch job to run through Windows 10 Task Scheduler at log on and then to repeat every hour afterwards. The job runs a one-way mirror at log on and executes successfully initially but does not repeat as instructed in Task Scheduler. Has anyone run into this problem and found a solution?

After logging on I can see that FreeFileSync icon appear on the task bar. If I double click the icon, I can watch the progress bar to confirm the program is running and terminating as expected. After completion, the target directory is correctly updating to mirror the source disk.

So, it appears FreeFileSync has executed and terminated through Task Schedular as expected. However, in the Task Scheduler I see the status for the task still set to "Running" after FreeFileSync has completed. There is no entry under "Next Run Time". If I wait an hour a new sync doesn't run even after making sure to make some changes to my source directory, so it has something to do.
 
After some hunting around the forums, I tried a few suggestions that didn't work for me. One suggestion was to use "Create a Task" rather than "Create a Basic Task" in Task Scheduler but either way fails to trigger. Another suggestion was to edit the batch file to change the <PostSyncAction> setting from "None" to "Close". This didn't seem to help either.

In the properties for the task, I have the following settings enabled: "Run with highest privileges", "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed", and "If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop". I have "Stop the task if it runs longer than" set to 3 days (the shortest I can set this to is 1 hour). I also have "If the task is already running, then the following rule applies" set to "Do not start a new instance".

Full disclosure: both my source and target directories are on separate disks that are both mirrored using Storage Spaces (analogous to RAID1). Yes, I'm mirroring with FreeFileSync on top of two pairs of disks that are themselves mirrored with Storage Spaces for triple redundancy!

[sectionV]

Seems like the scheduled sync may be working after all! I did have the first hourly trigger work today. The hourly syncs did NOT trigger for me yesterday. The biggest difference, I believe, is I created a new task in Task Scheduler today using "Create Task" rather than using "Create a Basic Task" which is how I set it up yesterday (as per the training video on Task Scheduling).

Perhaps the problem lies with Windows Task Scheduler not always updating its status correctly? After FreeFileSync completed its first sync today after log on the status in Task Scheduler showed "running". After successfully completing the second sync today triggered by the hourly repeat, the status in Task Scheduler switched to "Ready". I believe that is the expected Status. There is still no "Next Run Time" set in the scheduler.

I'll leave all of this information up in case it is helpful for anyone else.
 
If for some reason, the second hourly interval doesn't trigger I'll report back. Otherwise, consider this set up to be working and awesome! It is super useful to have fully automated Task Scheduled syncs running through FreeFileSync!

[sectionV]

OK, just to confirm the second hourly sync DID trigger so this is working great now. I can see new files I created after the first hourly sync being newly synced to the target disk. However, Task Scheduler didn't show that the second sync had run. I now see that you can refresh Task Scheduler's information under the Action menu.

This wasn't my problem yesterday because new files created on my source disk were not being copied over to my target disk. Today they are.

Anyone suitably interested in this with more background knowledge than me (I'd never even heard of Task Scheduler until yesterday!) feel free to test this out to check if using "Create Task" rather than using "Create a Basic Task" is essential to get this working. If that's the case, the video tutorial on setting up Task Scheduling may need to be updated.

Thanks for listening to me talking to myself!

[Abele]

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[xCSxXenon]

Totally unnecessary, those are the exact same options available in Task Scheduler anyway.
Choosing Basic Task has no effect other than setting some default settings that likely won't matter for FFS

[sectionV]

Yes, can confirm Task Scheduler is working for me just fine now after using for a few days. I've edited the freefilesync batch file and the task scheduler job itself to tweak a few settings and it continues to run just fine.

As to Basic Task having "no effect other than setting some default settings that likely won't matter for FFS" I'm still somewhat skeptical that those defaults don't matter after using Basic Task failed for me when testing. There is at least one other post on this forum that says using Create Task rather than Create Basic Task is essential when setting up Task Scheduler. That's why I tried it that way the next day and it worked for me when Create Basic Task didn't.

I believe one of the defaults set when using Create Basic Task is setting the operating system to Windows Vista rather than Windows 10. I have no idea if it makes a difference but I'm just throwing it out there as one possible way using Create Basic Task might not work.