"Error Cannot move file Error Code 17" for temp files on backup disk of moved sym-linked subdirs

[kds-kds]

To free up space on my local drive I moved some infrequently used subdirs with a large size from my home-dir to an external drive and sym-linked those dirs to my home-dir with the same name as previously.
In FFS ‘Update->’ setup I had selected the option to follow directory sym-links.
When I to took my next incremental backup, for all those moved-and-linked subdirs I got errors in this form:
19:50:10 Error Cannot move file
"/Volumes/[backup-disk]/[sub-dirs . . .]/[subdir-name].033e.ffs_tmp" to
"/Volumes/[backup-disk]/[sub-dirs . . .]/[subdir-name]".
Error Code 17: File exists [rename]
I clicked ‘ignore’ rather than interrupting/cancelling the ‘update’ (backup) proceeded with it.
After it finished, it gave error messages in the above form for all the moved-and-symlinked subdirs and did not back up anything from these subdirs. (However, FFS did not report that it could not find or traversed the subdirs on the external drive that were sym-linked into my home-dir.)
Why would FFS report an error in ‘moving’ its own temp files or report an error if the files that it itself created ‘exists’? Of course, this problem was definitely caused by my moving and sym-linking those subdirs but the wording doesn’t tell me why or what to do about it.
Should I move these files manually from /Volumes/[backup-disk]/[sub-dirs . . .]/ to /Volumes/[backup-disk]/[sub-dirs . . .]/[subdir-name]? Should I delete them? Should I ‘touch’ zero-byte files with matching names?
Thanks for any help.

[Zenju]

Can you get a little more concrete regarding source and target folders, and a specific error message? The error message suggests it is moving a file called "[subdir-name]".

[kds-kds]

Thanks for the reply. Sure, but first a correction.

1. The error message does not suggest 'it is moving a file called "[subdir-name];' it specifies that it is moving file named '[subdir-name].033e.ffs_tmp;' i.e. file's name is name of a subdir plus dot-something tagged on to it.

2. Okay, here is one of the full error messages copy-pasted:–
[19:50:14] Info: Creating file "/Volumes/KersaspTranscend/FFS/Kersasp/Videos"
[19:50:17] Error: Cannot move file
"/Volumes/KersaspTranscend/FFS/Kersasp/Videos.9e6e.ffs_tmp" to
"/Volumes/KersaspTranscend/FFS/Kersasp/Videos".
Error Code 17: File exists [rename]
Rest of the problem details and steps to reproduce are as written earlier.

3. I could not find this message easily at all. It was when I used Terminal to do a 'find' on the command-line to search for \*ffs\* that I found FFS's log-file in ~/Library/Application\ Support. Now I know where to go next time but would you please consider adding a 'View' menu item in FFS so that it would display various log-files?

Thanks.

[Zenju]

Is the source side of "/Volumes/KersaspTranscend/FFS/Kersasp/Videos" a file or a folder?

[kds-kds]

The source side of it is also definitely a folder (with files in it). Same with all the other sym-linked subdirs for which this error occurs.

[Zenju]

This contradicts with "Creating file "/Volumes/KersaspTranscend/FFS/Kersasp/Videos".

[kds-kds]

Well, yes, that is one of the problems.(!) I've just reported what FFS did and did not do.

[Zenju]

In order to find out what is going on, why not simply compare what Finder is reporting with what FreeFileSync is showing on its main dialog? You seem to expect miraculous resolutions to problems without providing any useful data.

[kds-kds]

Finder is not 'reporting' anything – how could it? So there is nothing to 'compare.'

I provided all the output from FFS in generalized form and also a specific copy-paste.

I don't 'expect' 'resolutions' when a software is free and I am not a paying customer – let alone 'miraculous' resolutions – such expectations would be irrational. It is entirely up to the software developer/team to decide whether or not to provide a fix. :-)