Hi there,
I am new to freefilesync, have watched all the videos but I am having a big issue when using it. I am mainly using it to update/sync a big folder on an external drive (about 2TB) to a NAS drive whenever a change is detected. Every time I start a update scan, it scans through all the files, even though I have just added 1 new folder with 7 files and a size of 200mb. The same happened when I tried to use realtimesync. I have attached my settings below. Really appreciate any help. Thanks!
Update scan, scans all the drive
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In order to establish that only your 7 files need to be synchronized, FreeFileSync (FFS) needs to Compare all files/items in the scope of the sync.
How else would FFS know that not more items require sync actions?
You use the Compare by File Content method.
This requires all data to be transferred to the machine running FFS, and obviously takes much more time than when Comparing by File Time and Size or just by Size.
So, consider to change your Compare method.
If you must Compare by File Content, and find the time it takes FFS to perform such Comparison objectional, consider the following:
1) If you use the Update sync variant because you do not want FFS to delete any items that exist (pre sync) right side only, you may add items (folders and files), or even complete folder trees, that do need to be Compared to your Include Filter.
Only items matching any of your Include Filter rules will be Compared.
2) If you use the Update sync variant because you do not want FFS to delete any items that exist (pre sync) right side only, you may add such items, or even complete folder trees, to your Exclude Filter.
Whatever item matches any of your Exclude Filter rules will not be Compared.
Alternative to 1) above is to use multiple left-right base-locations. If you want, you can even use local (=left-right pair specific) Compare method, Sync variant and/or In-and Exclude Filter rules.
If you want to use RealTimeSync (RTS) to monitor for changes, consider to divide the scope of monitoring and syncing into multiple, smaller scopes.
E.g., instead of RTS monitoring left-side folder A and FFS syncing it to right-side folder A', consider to have RTS separately monitor left-side folder A\A1, A\A2, A\A3 etc. and FFS syncing those separately to respectively right side folder A'\A1, A'\A2, A'\A3 etc.
Now the FFS sync A\A1=>A'\A1, triggered by RTS detecting one or more changes in A\A1, will only Compare A\A1 with A'\A1 (and its content), but not also A2, A3 etc.
How else would FFS know that not more items require sync actions?
You use the Compare by File Content method.
This requires all data to be transferred to the machine running FFS, and obviously takes much more time than when Comparing by File Time and Size or just by Size.
So, consider to change your Compare method.
If you must Compare by File Content, and find the time it takes FFS to perform such Comparison objectional, consider the following:
1) If you use the Update sync variant because you do not want FFS to delete any items that exist (pre sync) right side only, you may add items (folders and files), or even complete folder trees, that do need to be Compared to your Include Filter.
Only items matching any of your Include Filter rules will be Compared.
2) If you use the Update sync variant because you do not want FFS to delete any items that exist (pre sync) right side only, you may add such items, or even complete folder trees, to your Exclude Filter.
Whatever item matches any of your Exclude Filter rules will not be Compared.
Alternative to 1) above is to use multiple left-right base-locations. If you want, you can even use local (=left-right pair specific) Compare method, Sync variant and/or In-and Exclude Filter rules.
If you want to use RealTimeSync (RTS) to monitor for changes, consider to divide the scope of monitoring and syncing into multiple, smaller scopes.
E.g., instead of RTS monitoring left-side folder A and FFS syncing it to right-side folder A', consider to have RTS separately monitor left-side folder A\A1, A\A2, A\A3 etc. and FFS syncing those separately to respectively right side folder A'\A1, A'\A2, A'\A3 etc.
Now the FFS sync A\A1=>A'\A1, triggered by RTS detecting one or more changes in A\A1, will only Compare A\A1 with A'\A1 (and its content), but not also A2, A3 etc.
