I've been using FFS for years first as a Windows user and now since a couple of years on Linux Mint with no problem at all. Just recently I've encountered serious problems with sync I really don't know how to solve.
Basically what happens is on mirror syncing of personal data (config files and documents) to either an internal separate HDD or external HDD (I use both alternatively for my backups), FFS will suddenly hang on some file (and it can be even a small text file as well as a larger media file, it doesn't seem to be relevant to the type or size of file) and freeze the whole system. Can't use the mouse to pause or stop. I have to reload my session on Cinnamon using CTRL+ALT+Backspace for that.
What happens then is when it gets troublesome : I can no longer mount the backup (target) HDD whether local or external. It is mountable using a live CD only. The only solution I found was to format the target partition/HDD and then I can mount it on my system and do a sync with FreeFileSync which goes fast and well. It's only when replacing files that it may hang and I have no clue why or what could cause that since I've been using it flawlessly for ages. I've tried with latest version and backward to version 10.14.
I've checked my HDD's, they're all fine. I've disabled Timeshift so that it won't try to do some backing up that might cause conflict with FFS. I've split my FFS jobs in small portions just in case. Emptied the recycle bin before doing the jobs. Nothing does and doing backup routine has become a nighmare and a cause for stress and extremely time consuming.
I'd be so grateful if anyone could help me sort this out. Thanks.
System info :
System: Host: Sierranon Kernel: 4.15.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina
base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: H81M-P33 (MS-7817) v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1.9 date: 03/30/2015
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-4460 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Haswell rev: 3
L2 cache: 6144 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 25599
Speed: 1400 MHz min/max: 800/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1317 2: 1372 3: 1337
4: 1375
Drives: Local Storage: total: 1.83 TiB used: 538.81 GiB (28.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-75WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-75WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 90.55 GiB used: 14.57 GiB (16.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /home size: 823.90 GiB used: 263.25 GiB (32.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
ID-3: swap-1 size: 976.0 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1
