❓ Help with RealTimeSync Batch Setup – Path/Execution Errors

[PeterFile]

Hey, I’m pretty new to computers M23 and recently got some new drives and started building a setup to help me stay organized with video editing and backups. So far, I’ve got an auto-sorting system using a tool called DropIt to keep everything neat.

Now I’m working on setting up 3 backup mirrors to keep my files safe. ChatGPT has been helping me through the whole process and will explain the details below. Please do send any tips or questions, I and my robot friend will be attempting to understand, thank you.

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Hey all, I’ve been trying to get RealTimeSync working to monitor and auto-run my .ffs_batch jobs in the background. I’ve created three jobs that work fine when launched manually in FreeFileSync, but I’ve been trying to launch them using RealTimeSync (via .bat script or command line) and keep running into path-related errors.

✅ What I’ve Set Up So Far:
I’m using FreeFileSync + RealTimeSync 13.8. Installed from the official site.

I created 3 batch jobs using the FreeFileSync GUI, saved with the .ffs_batch extension (not .ffs_gui).

These are saved at:

makefile
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E:\Assets\CreativeAssets\SettingsBackups\FreeFileSync_Config\
Filenames:

ManuallySortedFiles_to_GDrive.ffs_batch

PersonalAssets_to_GDrive.ffs_batch

SanDisk_to_WDBlack.ffs_batch

To run them all at once, I made a .bat file like this:

bat
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@echo off
start "" "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\RealTimeSync.exe" "E:\Assets\CreativeAssets\SettingsBackups\FreeFileSync_Config\SanDisk_to_WDBlack.ffs_batch"
start "" "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\RealTimeSync.exe" "E:\Assets\CreativeAssets\SettingsBackups\FreeFileSync_Config\PersonalAssets_to_GDrive.ffs_batch"
start "" "C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\RealTimeSync.exe" "E:\Assets\CreativeAssets\SettingsBackups\FreeFileSync_Config\ManuallySortedFiles_to_GDrive.ffs_batch"
❌ What Keeps Going Wrong:
When I double-click the .bat file, three error boxes pop up.

Each RealTimeSync window opens blank, and only after I click “OK” on the error does the window load.

Error message says:

arduino
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Cannot open file ...
ERROR: PATH NOT FOUND / or
Unexpected file extension ".ffs_gui"
I made sure to change all filenames from .ffs_gui to .ffs_batch, but still get errors unless I manually open them from within RealTimeSync.

✅ Partial Progress:
After correcting the path format (adding the _ in FreeFileSync_Config), the correct jobs load into RealTimeSync if I paste one command into Run (Windows+R):

cmd
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"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\RealTimeSync.exe" "E:\Assets\CreativeAssets\SettingsBackups\FreeFileSync_Config\SanDisk_to_WDBlack.ffs_batch"
But even then, there’s a delay of ~15 seconds, and sometimes RealTimeSync crashes or doesn’t start until the error box is dismissed.

🧠 What I'm Trying to Do:
Automatically monitor 3 folder sync jobs at all times.

Launch all 3 RealTimeSync processes cleanly from a .bat file on startup.

Avoid any popup errors, crashes, or manual dismissal.

🔎 What I Suspect:
RealTimeSync is trying to validate the batch files before they're ready, or it may be timing out silently.

Maybe I'm missing a flag or startup timing tweak?

🧩 System Info (Safe Summary):
OS: Windows 10 Pro

FreeFileSync version: 13.8

Drive structure: E:\ = External SSD; D:\ = WD HDD; G:\ = Google Drive (via Drive for Desktop)

Paths are stable and don't change on reboot

🔧 Any suggestions?
If anyone has a way to:

Delay execution until the file is readable?

Confirm why .bat launching all 3 RealTimeSync instances causes file-not-found at first, but then works after dismissing the error?

Let me pass these to RealTimeSync without GUI prompts?

I’d love to automate this cleanly. Thanks a ton in advance 🙏

Let me know if you'd like me to attach logs, screenshots, or test builds.