does folder on left need to be put in a folder of the same name

[whatsys]

FFS noob question. I have (2) 2TB USB drives. I want to 'mirror' left drive to right drive. I dont want all the folders to be copied. If I understand correctly, FFS copies folder contents. I have a folder with all my backed up DVDs in it called 'movies'. Each movie is in its own folder. I started with syncing this folder from left to right. What I ended up with was each movie in its individual folder on the right side, not my 'movies' folder. So do I need to put my 900GB folder called 'movies' into another folder called 'movies' so I end up with a 'movies' folder on the right in which are the movies in their individual folders?

[whatsys]

Is there something special one has to do to get a reply?

[Plerry]

> Is there something special one has to do to get a reply?

No, but your question is (hmmm, how to phrase ...) kind of ignorant,
making people not feel impelled to reply.

If you mirror locationA to locationB, after the sync the content of locationB will/should
match that of locationA.
So, if the movies-folder is part of your locationA specification (e.g. D:\MyDocuments\movies) and you want the content of that movies-folder to end up in a folder "movies" at the mirror location, you need to create such movies folder there, and include it in the specification of locationB (e.g. E:\backups\bry\movies).

Conversely, if you specify the parent folders of both movies-folders as locationA,
respectively locationB (in my example D:\MyDocuments resp. E:\backups\bry),
the movies-folder is part of the content and will be copied over in its existing structure.
However, in the latter case, any other content of locationA (D:\MyDocuments) will also be copied over
(unless the include filter limits the sync to the movies-folder, or the exclude filter defines parts not to be synced).

[whatsys]

I am uninformed and lacking knowledge about FFS. Ignorance it is. But that is why I asked.

I see, so to get movies from a folder called movies on the the source drive into a folder called movies on the target drive, the movies folder on the right needs to be present *first*. Got it, thx

[barbara-luise]

+1

I would really appreciate it if an option "Automatically create data container folder" checkbox would be added in a future version.

[Plerry]

In a slightly different form, this is already present behavior.
Staying in line with the above example,
if you define your left (existing) location as D:\MyDocuments\movies
and your right location as E:\backups\bry\movies,
while the folder "movies" does not exist in E:\backups\bry yet,
FFS will notify you that the target location does not exist (yet),
and ask you if it should create that location for you.

[barbara-luise]

Thanks for the advice. Could you please give me a little more assistance?

My left (existing) location is my PC's harddrive "d:\nas synchro\new\movies".
My right loaction is my nas "\\ds218\video\movies"

Every movie in the left location "d:\nas synchro\new\movies" is stored in its own subfolder, e. g.
"d:\nas synchro\new\movies\mulan
d:\nas synchro\new\movies\ star wars 8"
etc.

I want FreeFileSync to update the right location. That means that the new movies in their respective subfolder shall bei copied to the right location. At the moment, FreeFileSync copies every new movie to "\\ds218\video\movies".

[therube]

I want FreeFileSync to update the right location. That means that the new movies in their respective subfolder shall bei copied to the right location.

That is what should be happening.

What type of Sync are you running?
Are you 'detect moved files' ?
For deletions, are you using Versioning?

[Plerry]

Assuming a Mirror-sync variant, FFS will sync all content of the left- base-location to the right-base-location in its existing (sub)folder structure, relative to the left- and right-base-location.
(I will assume that you meanwhile have folder "\\ds218\video\movies")
If your left base-location is "d:\nas synchro\new\movies"
and your right base location is "\\ds218\video\movies"
Assuming that "\\ds218\video\movies" is still empty, FFS will copy all content "d:\nas synchro\new\movies" to "d:\nas synchro\new\movies" in its existing (sub)folder structure.
So, a file in "d:\nas synchro\new\movies" will be copied into "\\ds218\video\movies"; a folder "d:\nas synchro\new\movies\mulan" will be copied as a folder "\\ds218\video\movies\mulan" with all its contents and possible subfolders. Exactly as you seem to want.

However, you write that you "want FreeFileSync to update the right location".
If you run an Update-sync variant, any pre-existing content in your right location that is not overwritten by your sync, will remain intact. So, if you had previously (unintentionally) copied movie-files directly to "\\ds218\video\movies\ and run above Update sync, those pre-existing files will not be removed.
Try running a Mirror-sync first (as per above left-right pair), look at the Compare results and verify that the proposed actions bring you to the desired result. If so, run that sync.
If you want to retain movies (in their respective folders) in "\\ds218\video\movies" that you may delete from "d:\nas synchro\new\movies", then change the sync variant from Mirror into Update and save that configuration.

[barbara-luise]

Thanks for the reply!

I don't use the mirror-sync variant, but the "update" variant. Therefore, the folder structure in the left-base-location is not identical to the right-base-location. Rather, the left-base-location solely contains the new files in their respective folder. These files shall be synced to the right-base-location. "Syncing" means that they should be copied to the right-base-location including the respective subfolder.

For example:

Starting position:

1. left-base-location (PC):

d:\nas synchro\new\movies\Mulan
d:\nas synchro\new\movies\ star wars 8

2. right-base-location (nas):

\\ds218\video\movies\die hard 1
\\ds218\video\movies\ blade runner

3. Desired result in right-base-location (nas) after snycing:

\\ds218\video\movies\Muland
\\ds218\video\movies\star wars 8
\\ds218\video\movies\die hard 1
\\ds218\video\movies\blade runner

Is this feasible?

Thanks.

[xCSxXenon]

Left side: "d:\nas synchro\new\movies\"
right side: "\\ds218\video\movies\"
With the update setting, you have to delete the data on the right side. Since it is already in the wrong location(s), and update doesn't delete out-of-sync data on the right, it will always be wrong until a 'fresh sync'

[Plerry]

@barbara-luise:
You seem not to have understood or have ignored what I wrote.
If you define a first pair as
left: d:\nas synchro\new\movies\Mulan\ and
right: \\ds218\video\movies\die hard 1\
how do you ever expect to get a folder \\ds218\video\movies\Muland\?
With such left-right pair, the content of d:\nas synchro\new\movies\Mulan\ will be synced into \\ds218\video\movies\die hard 1\

In slightly different wording xCSxXenon and I write the same.
Simply act as xCSxXenon or as I suggested, and you achieve that the content of d:\nas synchro\new\movies\ is synced to \\ds218\video\movies\ in its existing (sub)folder structure, as you describe to desire.
If you follow xCSxXenon's approach ("With the Update setting, you have to delete the data on the right side"), make sure to do said deletion before you run your first sync.
If you follow my approach (First time a Mirror sync, all next times an Update sync), that first Mirror sync will delete everything on the right side that is not supposed to be there.
The outcome of either approach should be the same.

[barbara-luise]

@Plerry:

Thanks for all your help!

I'm working with different folders that are stored in different locations on my pc. Therefore, your solution unfortunately doesn't work for me.

Let me please explain.

My Freefilesync configuration is as follows:

on the left side: \\ds218\video\movies
on the right side: f:\nas backup\movies

In \\ds218\video\movies every movie is stored in its own subfolder.

Freefilesync is set to mirror the left side \\ds218\video\movies to the right side f:\nas\backup\movies. This works perfectly!

The new movie files that are to be copied to \\ds218\video\movies are stored in a different location. This location is my pc's hard drive d:\nas synchro\new\movies.

I would like Freefilesync to copy the movie files in their respective subfolder from d:nas\synchro\new\movies to \\ds218\video\movies. Once the movie files have been copied to \\ds218\video\movies, Freefilesync will mirror them to f:\\nas backup\movies.

Is this feasible?

[xCSxXenon]

Yes, you want to do an 'update' sync on the first sync from the D:\ drive to the NAS. This will make it so it won't delete anything on the NAS, only update it with the new movies on the D:\ drive. You can then have the mirror sync from the NAS to the F:\ drive for NAS backup

[barbara-luise]

@xCSxXenon:

Thanks. As mentioned above, the "update" sync from the d:\drive to the nas works, but only the files are copied not the files in their respective subfolder.

This could be solved by adding a checkbox "Automatically create data container folder" in a future version.

[xCSxXenon]

That makes zero sense... That is exactly how it works currently. If I have a folder 'D:\A' that contains folders/files:
'D:\A\temp1\test.txt'
'D:\A\temp1\test.mp4'
'D:\A\temp2\resume.docx'
'D:\A\temp3\Movie.mkv'

and then I sync that to folder 'E:\A", the destination will end up as:
'E:\A\temp1\test.txt'
'E:\A\temp1\test.mp4'
'E:\A\temp2\resume.docx'
'E:\A\temp3\Movie.mkv'

NOT

'E:\A\test.txt'
'E:\A\test.mp4'
'E:\A\resume.docx'
'E:\A\Movie.mkv'

Is this ^ what is happening for you?

[barbara-luise]

I've tried again. And now it seems to work. Thanks a lot for all the help!