FreeFileSync Freezes on locking files

Posts: 7 · h20718 22 Oct 2013, 02:21

I run FFS the first time (with GUI) and it worked ok. Subsequent runs with scheduler probably didn't accomplish anything, so there were a lot of files not sync'ed. So today I run a GUI session, and the session invariably freezes at "Waiting while directory is locked..." phase.

I found an earlier discussion about this, and supposedly this was at most to last 30 seconds or so, or until all the other FFS processes are killed. I made sure there are no other FFS processes running (there are none, until I run the GUI). But this freeze has been observed to last for about an hour. (I have a screen shot but can't find a way to attach it here.)

The PC is running Win7 Pro. The remote drive is Synology. The freeze is always on waiting for a lock of the local directory, not the remote one.

Thank you for any help you may provide.

Jackson

Posts: 7 · h20718 22 Oct 2013, 02:24

Now I got the attachment button, so here it is:

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 22 Oct 2013, 09:48

If the lock is not detected as abandoned after 30 seconds, it must be active. You can verify this by checking the file size of the lock file. It should increase every five seconds.

Posts: 7 · h20718 26 Oct 2013, 16:28

Strangely, when I tried FFS again, to check on the lock file's size, it magically worked with nary a pause.

My question really was not about whether the lock file is abandoned or not. It's about if FFS is stuck on locking the file, what I should/could do about it.

Thanks.

Jackson

Posts: 7 · h20718 26 Oct 2013, 16:28

And sorry about the delay. I replied to this thread a couple of days ago, or so I thought. But somehow my reply didn't stick.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 26 Oct 2013, 16:40

> if FFS is stuck on locking the file, what I should/could do about it.

Wait until the other FFS sync job that is holding the lock is finshed.

Posts: 7 · h20718 27 Oct 2013, 02:41

> if FFS is stuck on locking the file, what I should/could do about it.

Wait until the other FFS sync job that is holding the lock is finshed.Zenju

But there is no other FFS sync jobs. If I close the FFS GUI, there is no FFS task in the task manager. If I open it, there are two.

This problem is back now, and this time I can see that the lock file does grow in size. But the program never gets past the point.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 27 Oct 2013, 10:26

If the lock file grows in size this means that another FFS process is still running and keeping the lock active. This needn't be on the local PC: If you sync across networks this FFS process can be on any machine that has access to this shared folder.

Posts: 7 · h20718 29 Oct 2013, 01:44

There are no other FFS processes running, on this machine or any other. I know because so far I've only installed FFS on two machines in the house, and the other one that has FFS is generally not even on. I intended to move the others from SyncToy to FFS, for the graphical progress report, but only if this problem can be fixed. Besides, FFS always freezes on locking a local directory, and no directories from this computer is shared out.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 29 Oct 2013, 10:13

So, are you able to reproduce this lock problem?

Posts: 7 · h20718 31 Oct 2013, 01:22

I found the problem. There somehow is a stuck FFS process, in the background. It became visible when I clicked on "Show processes from all users", and the owner of the process is listed as myself! I killed that process, and FFS was able to run again.