Question regarding permissions of source folder

[it-director]

I just recently installed FreeFileSync, this program is wonderful and saving me and my staff hours of work... Much appreciated!

So I have a question regarding source folders and their permissions. I have a server that I am syncing to a QNAP. The user account I am using to log into the server is a local admin account that has R/W permission to all files shares except two. Is there a way for FreeFileSync to use alternate credentials for those two shares so they can be sync'd?

Thanks!

[Plerry]

The simplest is to run your sync task under a NAS admin account with sufficient rights in all shares involved.
If that is not an option ...

Given your description, it seems you are running FFS on a Windows machine, as per Windows account Windows does not allow to connect to a specific external resource under different remote accounts. (Microsoft considers this to be a safety risk ...).

It e.g. is not possible in Windows to:
Connect to \\192.168.1.101\music under (NAS)userID "user1" (with user1's password)
and at the same time
Connect to \\192.168.1.101\video under (NAS)userID "user2" (with user2's password)
because Windows can only connect to the netwerkresource 192.168.1.101 under a single userID.

There are however simple ways out.

Windows considers a locations based on IP-address to be different from a location based on a FQDN (fully qualified domain name), even if the FQDN points to the same IP-address.
Thus, it is possible to:
Connect to \\192.168.1.101\music under (NAS)userID "user1" (with user1's password)
and at the same time
Connect to \\Diskstation\video under (NAS)userID "user2" (with user2's password)
even if Diskstation points to 192.168.1.101.
If so desired, the (different) userIDs and passwords for both locations can be managed seperately in the Windows Credential Manager.

You can even go further by adding multiple aliases in your "hosts"-file (normally
"C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts") to one and the same IP-address of your NAS.
After e.g. adding "samba1 192.168.1.101" and "samba2 192.168.1.101" to your hosts-file,
you can connect to \\samba1\music and to \\samba2\video under different (NAS)userIDs.
The (different) credentials towards "samba1" and "samba2" can be managed via the Credential Manager, if so desired.

[it-director]

Thanks for the reply... perhaps I didn't explain my issue clearly, sorry. I'm asking to find out if FreeFileSync can use a second set of credentials to access certain folders on the server I'm syncing from? All of my pairs are syncing as expected except for two. The local admin account on the server does not have permissions to those two folder; however, I do have another account that I could use that does. Thanks

[Plerry]

> I'm asking to find out if FreeFileSync can use a second set of credentials to access certain folders on the server I'm syncing from?

And that was exactly the question I was answering.

Simply specify a 2nd L/R folder pair, using a different alias in the hosts file,
referring to different credentials, for the two shares requiring a different (NAS)usedID.

But again, creating a separate (NAS)account for the sync-task, with sufficient rights in all shares involved, is the simplest way to go about.

[it-director]

Plerry, I appreciate your response an patience with me on this one. Where is the hosts file you speak of? I'm brand new to FFS and learning. Thanks!

[Plerry]

> Where is the hosts file you speak of?

The default location of the hosts-file is mentioned in my first reply ...


>I'm brand new to FFS and learning.

The hosts-file is part of the "local DNS" and is consulted by the operating system
when connecting to network resources via FQDN. It has no direct relation to FFS.