"Swap Sides" Button (safety option against accidental use)

Posts: 55 · gdhm 29 Dec 2014, 06:14

Unless I've missed it and it already exists somewhere in FreeFileSync, please can we have a tick option or password) option in the Main Menu>Tools>Options to stop a User from Swapping Sides via the "Swap Sides" Button without either a password or as a minimum, a Pop up windows asking User whether he/she really wishes to do this.

I ask because I have noted that in one of my Backup pairs things in the source are missing or outdated and my only conclusion is that I accidentally in the past few days accidentally clicked the "Swap Sides" Button and did not notice and must have consequently copied my data the wrong way.

MY suggested line of defence would help avoid such unwanted mistakes.
I do understand that a clue would be that upon leaving the particular Backup that FreeFileSync would ask if User wished to save the change, but I believe it is better to avoid the mistake before its done.

Users who are not interested in this extra line of defence against accidental actions by a User would not be affected, as they would just leave unticked, the tick box for confirmation or password when "Swap Sides" Button clicked.

Thanks

Posts: 8 · crux 26 Mar 2019, 14:41

+1 for this suggestion.

This is the only reason I use Synctoy instead FreeFileSync. A way to disable the swap button or make it difficult to avoid mistakes is absolutely necessary.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 27 Mar 2019, 10:58

Is this really such a great risk? Why whould you ever press a button and not be aware of it, and also not notice the GUI changes?

Posts: 102 · volker01 27 Mar 2019, 12:01

+1 also from me.
yes, it is a risk. A popup "Do you want to swap ..." would be ok.

Posts: 8 · crux 27 Mar 2019, 13:55

Is this really such a great risk? Why whould you ever press a button and not be aware of it, and also not notice the GUI changes? Zenju, 27 Mar 2019, 10:58

Of course it is a risk. And there is no GUI changes after pressing swap button. Only waps items left<>right.

Posts: 3 · clipper1 22 Apr 2019, 19:02

imho user friendly software design should explain to the user all important things and consider human failures like typo etc. (For example do not place the BackupDisk-button next to the FormatDisk-button)

While testing yesterday I accidently hit Sync while on "Two ways" instead of intended "mirror". Gladly I was able to cancel the operation. The pop-up should be enabled by default (check %AppData%\FreeFileSync\GlobalSettings.xml)

Yes, there should open a window explaining what is going to happen prior to delete anything and it should give the user the option to "dont show window again/cancel/ok". Many users might not consider or notice files are going to be deleted because it simply might be not visible on the screen.

Q: does a warning appear if the recycle bin is full?

Cheers clipper

Posts: 8 · crux 23 May 2019, 17:17

Any news on this subject? Is it on waiting list?

Its the only reason I am not using it. That swap button can kill everything easely.

It should have a confirmation or the option to disable the button.

Thanks.

Posts: 10 · Kai4 17 Sep 2020, 20:40

I have the same issue. The problem for me is, that the swap button has the F10 key. I have a program that uses that as system wide shortcut, but FreeFileSync does block those (I guess you implemented some code that avoids keyloggers for SFTP password entries or alike). I had the same issue of a backup FFS script accidentally swapping directions and overwriting data that could not be restored. I would appreciate either a way to get a double check when intending to swap OR the ability to change the F10 shortcut for the swap button to something else! Thanks alot!

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 17 Sep 2020, 22:03

It should at least put a warning somewhere. Not necessarily a double prompt though.

Posts: 10 · Kai4 17 Sep 2020, 22:45

Or provide an option to be specified in %AppData%\FreeFileSync\GlobalSettings.xml
For my 'problem-case' it would be great if I could either deactivate the F10 associating to swap sides that way or even better to deactivate the blocking of other programs to capture the keystrokes.

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 18 Sep 2020, 14:03

Of course, being able to remap/disable hotkeys would be awesome, but that is a lot of work. I feel a simple compromise could include a small text based warning on the sync button, in red text, saying "swapped" or something similar. This doesn't disrupt the flow of swapping, but does add a small caution

Posts: 10 · Kai4 18 Sep 2020, 23:46

I still do not agree, a red text is no solution. How long would you expect that to show? The user's attention can be on a different screen program, but if FFS still catches a typically global F10 hotkey, that would be lost, if shown for a few second (and a persistent "swapped" makes no sense).
There are other warnings with dialogue as well, I think a separate dialogue confirming (with remember this answer option) would still be the best choice for many users. For those more specific cases as mine (the F10 hotkey with the combination of catching away global hotkeys) disabling the hotkey via flag would be best.

Posts: 8 · crux 19 Sep 2020, 16:11

I still don't use FFS because I don't get at least a confirmation on clicking that button (that confirmation could be disabled on options, and program would work same way for those who don't want it). Or maybe a option to just disable that button.

Synctoy is the best options for me until this is sorted.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 23 Sep 2020, 18:48

Fixed for next release:

- Swap sides using CTRL+W instead of F10
- Show confirmation dialog before swapping sides
(with checkbox: "don't show again")

Posts: 8 · crux 23 Sep 2020, 21:58

Thanks. Great news.

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 24 Sep 2020, 19:54

Awesome! Small but nice feature

Posts: 10 · Kai4 25 Sep 2020, 01:43

Thanks from my side as well - @Zenju, I appreciate your quick and proactive reaction to this discussion thread.

Posts: 7 · ArtM7 18 Nov 2020, 00:01

RE Swap - Suggestion - Change COlOUR TO RED on the Arrow Black Loop Icon at top between files lists whenever swap is activated. This would be a clear warning on FFS that swap has been activated and appear immediately when a session is opened/reopened.

Posts: 10 · Kai4 18 Nov 2020, 00:57

As written by @Zenju on 23 Sep, the issue is solved and he found a really good solution making this a 2 key shortcut and confirmation dialog that can be deactivated.
A red arrow would not have been sufficient anyways as warning, and on top of that my understanding is that 'swap' is not a flag but an action, so your point on "appear when session is opened" does not hold in my view.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 10 Dec 2021, 20:02

"Command+W" is a system shortcut on macOS. Also, the confirmation dialog seems to be somewhat cumbersome. Maybe we can do better: new handling in FFS 11.16:

• New keyboard shortcuts:
CTRL + TAB (Windows, Linux)
OPTION + TAB (macOS)

• Clicking the swap button doesn't immediately swap, but opens a context menu, that requires an explicit selection.

• Swapping shows status information "sides have been swapped".

In light of these changes the confirmation dialog doesn't seem to be needed anymore => removed.