Freefilesync does not see / sync all files?

Posts: 4 · gitsie! 11 Feb 2016, 19:06

Hi,

Apologies if they has been asked before, but I could not find it in the forum.
I'm syncing 2 hard drives.
I'm not using any filters.
I'm running FFS as admin on Windows 7.
Freefilesync says there are 22500 files in total in the source folder.
Windows Explorer says that there are 22755 files in the source.

Can Freefilessync not be trusted to copy each and every file?

Posts: 2292 · Plerry 12 Feb 2016, 13:02

... I'm not using any filters. ...gitsie!

So, your Include filter is "*" and your Exclude filter is empty?

Posts: 4 · gitsie! 12 Feb 2016, 19:13

Hi Plerry,

yes it is.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 12 Feb 2016, 19:45

What about symlink settings? Try to drill in into individual folders until you find a difference between FFS and Explorer.

Posts: 4 · 2muchacid 13 Mar 2016, 08:15

Having the same problem

Posts: 2292 · Plerry 16 Mar 2016, 09:56

Can any of you pinpoint which/what files seem to be not included?

Posts: 4 · gitsie! 23 Mar 2016, 23:29

Hi Plerry,

It is some time ago now and I think the files that it was not copying were the Mac files that start with ._
I will try again in a couple of days and share the outcome.

Posts: 15 · JoyceAE5 26 Mar 2016, 15:32

I am having the same problem where FreeFileSync running on a MAC does not synchronize all files from one USB device to another. Here is the process that I follow:

1) Run Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the MAC partition to external drive 1.
2) Run Paragon Boot Camp Backup to copy the BootCamp partition to external drive 1.
3) Run FreeFileSync to mirror external drive 1 to external drive 2.

The majority of the files are copied properly but it ends up leaving a couple of thousand files that do not get copied (roughly about 1.26 GB). I have tried adjusting all the settings but no luck. I have no filters set for the job. How can I get it to copy all of the files?

Joyce

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 26 Mar 2016, 15:51

How can I get it to copy all of the files?JoyceAE5

Try to find a particular file that is not copied, but that you want to have copied. Then it will probably become clear why it is not copied, e.g. it is excluded by filters, it is a symlink that is not considered, etc.

Posts: 15 · JoyceAE5 27 Mar 2016, 13:08

I guess I am missing something here. I have no filters set and I have asked to mirror one drive to another. To me this means making an exact copy - not having the program arbitrarily deciding which files to exclude. If there are symlinks on the original then they should be copied to the other drive. They were created for a specific reason. If it is not an exact copy, then how can I rely on using the mirrored copy to do a restore? The whole point of doing the synchronization is to maintain 2 copies of the same environment in case of a disaster.

Joyce

Posts: 4 · gitsie! 28 Mar 2016, 15:37

I did some more testing and come to the conclusion that FreeFileSync does probably copy everything.
On Windows I saw no difference in the number of files that FFS says are there and looking at it in Windows Explorer.

However on Mac I was seeing a difference in the number of files reported by FFS and Mac Finder, but it is caused by Finder for some reason not counting all the files. If I use a third party file manager (SourceForge's DoubleCommander) it counts the same number of files as FFS and Windows Explorer. FFS is doing it's work.

For other people who think they are missing files, but don't know which or what type, it might be handy to use this program: iDsk Inventory X from http://www.derlien.com/ because it allows you to easily what on your drive.
Thanks for the support

Posts: 4 · 2muchacid 3 Apr 2016, 07:44

As for my problem, using Windows:

After doing the sync and it completes, by looking at the number of files on each folder I found that the source had a couple hundred files more.
I tried to run the mirror sync again and it detects no differences in both folders, even when Windows Explorer shows a significantly difference in the number of files (200+).
I also cleared all the filters in FreeFileSync, double checked.

Then I tried Windows explorer copy \ paste and after a while it warns me that some of the file's paths and names are too long, I had to click to skip those files.
so I suppose those are the files FreeFileSync doesn't copy and didn't even warn me on that.

Would prefer using FreeFileSync if it was assured that the folders are identical, did I miss something?

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 3 Apr 2016, 09:51

Then I tried Windows explorer copy \ paste and after a while it warns me that some of the file's paths and names are too long2muchacid

FreeFileSync supports copying files with long paths unlike Explorer. If you really want to know what's going on, stop the guesswork and do some analysis: viewtopic.php?t=2277&p=10080#p10013

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 3 Apr 2016, 11:20

I've added a new FAQ entry with reasons why Explorer and FreeFileSync may legitimately mismatch:
https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#explorer-mismatch