File Sync Very Slow

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 30 May 2018, 17:51

Hello all,

the issue I am having is my boss is using FreeFileSync to move files twice a day from his laptop to his desktop when he arrives in the morning, and then from his desktop back to his laptop in the afternoon before leaving. Now he is reporting that the sync is slow, in and around 6 mins or more when before it was typically 2 minutes. The transfer rate is about 11.2 MB/sec when moving files.

He is using version 10.0 on a Windows 10 Professional 64 bit System, on both devices. Currently the items being Synced are items from the desktop and the documents folders.

I have also attached the Last Sync log file to this post. I would be very grateful an explanation as to why the Sync is being so slow.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 31 May 2018, 07:34

Unless you see high CPU times, it's not a problem caused by FreeFileSync, which is I/O bound.

Posts: 6 · fblaha 5 Jun 2018, 11:40

Hello Zenju,
I also see that with the latest versions of FFS, the scanning process is taking longer, with the same file count and same computers conditions. Can this be related to the donation edition? Is donation edition faster than free edition?
Thank you,
Fernando

Posts: 6 · fblaha 5 Jun 2018, 12:20

The scan process takes at least 5 to 6 times more time than it used to...

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 13 Jun 2018, 12:28

Hello,

Quick update, using the latest version of Windows 10 64 bit and the latest version of FFS I am still seeing issues with slowness. I have talked to others and they can assure me there is nothing running over the network that would cause this. When I open task manager it shows FFS eating up 90-99% of the network card with the mother metrics being in the high 20s or low 30s. The network display on the task manager states 88-95 mbps are going out but FFS only shows about 11.36-11.5 mbps going out. That 88-95 mbps on task manager is showing entirely in the FFS process.

Also another user who uses FFS in the same way is reporting much faster syncs and better times. As far as I know the setups are the same. Any thoughts?

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 25 Jun 2018, 12:47

Still seeing this issue, tested on 3 other PCs all are getting 11.3-11.5 mbps and taking 6-8 mins to sync files. I've tested it on the network at work and my home network for the same results. Not sure what more to do on this.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 25 Jun 2018, 12:56

I'd suggest making tests with different FFS versions and also compare with other tools like Windows Explorer to see if there is any difference. Just make sure you're really testing the same data, so that the measurements are meaningful.

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 25 Jun 2018, 18:26

So far we tested with 10.0 and 10.1, but I could try going to older version of the app and seeing what results I get.

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 26 Jun 2018, 20:07

Is there anywhere in Windows that could be throttling the the speed or connection? Perhaps a system setting that is keeping the speed at 11.5?

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 27 Jun 2018, 07:40

Everything is possible. In order to make any progress in this matter first it needs to be clarified that the slowdown is specific to FFS and if so, which specific version demonstrated the behavior first. Just for the record, I'm not expecting the slowness issue to be caused by FFS.

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 27 Jun 2018, 10:09

The issue 1st appeared with version 10, and also appears on the latest version of the application. It seemed to start happening randomly. I also share your thought that it isnt FFS itself but something in Windows causing the issue.

Can you provide more detail on the process FFS uses in Windows to do a network sync via Ethernet? Also is there a way to see if Windows is throttling the Sync? At this point I am out of ideas for the cause.

I also tested just using Windows File Explorer to move a file around to a network drive, this went much faster then FFS's sync time.

Posts: 7058 · Zenju 27 Jun 2018, 11:06

The issue 1st appeared with version 10, and also appears on the latest version of the application. Ubermedical, 27 Jun 2018, 10:09

I can't do much with such a statement. What's needed is 1: define a specific test scenario that delivers reproducible results with a certain FFS version. 2. Test with different FFS versions and Explorer and see if there is a perf difference. 3. If the numbers indicate a difference, this might be something to have a closer look at.

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 27 Jun 2018, 15:13

After Testing with about 4 different version of the program I can report no change in the speed of the sync. Can you let me know what processes FFS uses in Windows to do its work? Perhaps those are the source of the issue. What puzzles me is the one PC I have that is clearly getting upto 80 mbps when doing a sync.

Posts: 8 · Ubermedical 27 Jun 2018, 17:36

I also noticed something today while I was trying to troubleshoot. The Disk speed for the application matches the transfer rate in FFS. I think I may have found my bottleneck. The disk sits at 11-1.5 mb/s while the network is going at 88-100 mb/s.