The following folders are significantly different - Make sure you have selected the correct folders for synchronization

[Mark2050]

There was a past post about this, but the answer was not satisfactory, at least not for me. The previous answer was basically, it was just a warning, you can proceed despite it.

Here is the problem explained differently.

On my Desktop, the folder URL would be "C:\Users\(username)\Desktop\(Folder-Name)"

On my backup drive the folder URL would be: "L:\(Folder-Name)"

The source folder name and target folder name are exactly the same. The only difference is the URL is longer on my Desktop. The subfolders are the same name between the source and target with new folders and contents in only the source folder.

The Free Sync utility gave me the warning,

"The following folders are significantly different. Make sure you have selected the correct folders for synchronization"

I created folders on my backup drive to match the folder names from the source folder URL, so it would look exactly the same as "L:\Users\(username)\Desktop\(Folder-Name)".

I still got the same warning.

I copied the name of the target folder via rename, and pasted it to rename the source folder making the name exactly the same between them. This was to ensure that even any hidden ASCII characters would be the same.

I still got the same warning.

It never came up before in the older version of FreeFileSync, when both the source and target folder are exactly the same name. It did not matter the URL, so long as the folder names were the same.

So if the folder name is exactly the same, why would this warning come up? - can someone who knows the answer provide a better explanation as to why this occurs?

and ... if someone clicks "ignore" are there going to be transfer issues, lost files/data, etc?

Thanks

[Plerry]

The warning does not relate to the folder names, but to the content of those folders.

As a sync tool, FFS expects the content of its source and destination folders to be not substantially different.
If the content differs substantially, it will trigger the above referred to warning, flagging the user that he might have selected an incorrect folder pair.
If you newly created the destination folder, that folder will generally be empty. Upon the first FFS sync you run for that source-destination pair, the content will differ substantially, and thus trigger the warning.
As you know your destination folder is empty, you know the content differs substantially, so after re-verifying you have selected the correct source- and destination-locations, you can safely ignore the warning.
On any consecutive FFS sync the content will most likely no longer differ substantially, and hence FFS will not show said warning again.

[Mark2050]

Thanks for the reply.

Hmmm, has this been standard in FreeFileSync for a long time or is this recent in the past year? - I ask because I never experienced this when the folder names were the same between them despite less or more or content in them.

[Zenju]

Empty folders during the first sync will not trigger "significant difference". Except if there is a conflict or deletion.

[Mark2050]

Ok, so long as the warning will not lead to lost files/data, then there is nothing to worry about and taking a double check to ensure the target folder is the one intended, then all is good.

Even if the target (destination) folder was a mistake, no files/data would be lost, the transfer can always be repeated to a different target folder.

[Zenju]

Instead of ignoring the warning I'd suggest to find out why it is showing. For first-time syncs there should not be a warning.

[Mark2050]

Zenju - find out how? - apart from rechecking that the target folder is the one intended and making sure folder names match. (as far as I know, files that are unique only to the target folder should not matter because I am updating only "one way", from source to target, I am not updating both ways).

Are you suggesting the warning means something more?

There is not much to the options and they are at default settings. , note - this is the current version of FreeFileSync on windows 10.

Yes it is a first time sync on the current Windows OS, but I have used it a lot before on Windows 7. It has been about 6-8 months the last time I used this sync program, so likely it was updated since.

[Zenju]

You're probably good then. At first it sounded like you were syncing into an empty target folder.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I get the warning when I've added and/or delete a large number files, especially large ones. I just ignore it.