Help needed with FFS YYYY-MM-DD folders on backup server

[mfreedberg]

As we expand the number of people in our backup pool, we monitor the space available on our backups servers closely. When we see a sudden drop, we run a scanner program to find files over a certain size OR cases where, for some reason, FreeFileSync creates *and keeps creating* a sequence of temporary folders on the server:

\\MyBackupServer\MyBackupShare\myUserName\myUserName\Pictures\FFS 2013-01-21 220339 [4]
\\MyBackupServer\MyBackupShare\myUserName\myUserName\Pictures\FFS 2013-01-22 093033 [4]
\\MyBackupServer\MyBackupShare\myUserName\myUserName\Pictures\FFS 2013-01-22 133950 [4]
\\MyBackupServer\MyBackupShare\myUserName\myUserName\Pictures\FFS 2013-01-22 211040 [4]

These can take up a lot of space and we need help to figure out:
1. What causes these directories to be created?
2. Is there a code fix to be implemented that can prevent the creation of these folders?

We raised a similar issue where we would see FFS_TMP folders being created because of a failure to recognize that the folder had been deleted and Zenju fixed that quickly - that is working very well. Now we need help understanding what might be causing these duplicating folders on the target server, and what might need to be done to correct that. Please let me know what other data you might need to help debug this case!

NOTE: we are still running 5.12 - this might have been fixed in a later version.

Once again, thanks for an amazing application!

[srjones67]

I believe you have versioning enabled.

[mfreedberg]

I have checked our config and can confirm we are NOT using versioning. Here is our top level sync config:

 <SyncConfig>
            <Variant>Automatic</Variant>
            <CustomDirections>
                <LeftOnly>right</LeftOnly>
                <RightOnly>left</RightOnly>
                <LeftNewer>right</LeftNewer>
                <RightNewer>left</RightNewer>
                <Different>none</Different>
                <Conflict>none</Conflict>
            </CustomDirections>
            <DeletionPolicy>RecycleBin</DeletionPolicy>
            <VersioningFolder Style="AddTimeStamp"/>
        </SyncConfig>


and I have also checked each individual folder pair, and they look correct as well, here is just an example:

<Pair>
                <Left>%csidl_MyDocuments%</Left>
                <Right>%PCXPATH%\%username%\%username%\Documents</Right>
                <SyncConfig>
                    <Variant>Automatic</Variant>
                    <CustomDirections>
                        <LeftOnly>right</LeftOnly>
                        <RightOnly>left</RightOnly>
                        <LeftNewer>right</LeftNewer>
                        <RightNewer>left</RightNewer>
                        <Different>none</Different>
                        <Conflict>none</Conflict>
                    </CustomDirections>
                    <DeletionPolicy>RecycleBin</DeletionPolicy>
                    <VersioningFolder Style="AddTimeStamp"/>
                </SyncConfig>
                <LocalFilter>
                    <Include>*</Include>
                    <Exclude>\My Pictures\&#x0A;\My Music\&#x0A;\My Videos\</Exclude>
                    <TimeSpan Type="Inactive">0</TimeSpan>
                    <SizeMin Unit="Inactive">0</SizeMin>
                    <SizeMax Unit="Inactive">0</SizeMax>
                </LocalFilter>
            </Pair>


If you have versioning on, you should see <DeletionPolicy>Versioning</DeletionPolicy>

This feels more like FFS is somehow failing to complete the folder copy or folder creation and so it just keeps making another one and another one and so on...and these folders can also get very deep.

My colleague has pointed out that these may all be old folders and a symptom of a problem we have already fixed (in 5.12), AND we are also excluding "*\FFS 201*\" in the global filter so that they never come down.

So, just to close it out: under what circumstances does FFS create directories with that naming convention?

This also only happens on the target (the server) even though we have Automatic mode turned on - I do not believe the syncing process ever tries to recreate these folders in reverse (as in it seems them on the server and tries to recreate them back on the local system).

[Zenju]

@Michael: It seems we've discussed and resolved this very same problem already:
viewtopic.php?t=2096&p=9014#p9014

[mfreedberg]

@Michael: It seems we've discussed and resolved this very same problem already:
viewtopic.php?t=2096&p=9014#p9014

Yes, I knew this sounded SO familiar and I remember covering exactly this ground - and now I know why this has bubbled up again. My colleague mentioned later, after asking me to raise this issue again, that these are all *old folders from jan or feb*, so from BEFORE the changes you made in 5.12 to address this. On top of that, we have a global exclusion set set for these folders, so they never come back down to the client.

Thank you, it was sort of driving me crazy today :-)