I am running a Synology NAS on my local network for a 2-way sync with certain folders from my computer. I recently moved around over 500 GB of media files within one of those synced folders.
Freefilesync recognizes all the moves correctly, but when I execute the sync, it starts to copy and delete the files on the NAS rather than moving them. This causes the internal NAS backup software to view the files as new rather than moved, which then drives a 500 GB differential backup instead of it just marking the new file locations.
Which aspect of this sort of setup will most likely cause freefilesync to default to “copy and delete” rather than moving the files (SMB connection, BTRFS NAS file structure, etc.)? Any advice or workarounds would be extremely helpful and appreciated.
Synology NAS move versus copy/delete
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- Joined: 29 Mar 2020
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- Posts: 3603
- Joined: 11 Jun 2019
Have you enabled "detect moved files"?
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- Joined: 29 Mar 2020
Yes it is enabled. I believe it is always on when 2-way sync it used.
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- Joined: 29 Mar 2020
I continued to try and diagnose the issue and was able to get some idea of what might be happening. I am currently running FreeFileSync on a wireless laptop connecting to a NAS on the same local network.
1) If I sync a few files, they are moved with no issues. The log clearly states the move and the run time of the action is in-line with a file move rather than copy.
2) If I sync a lot of files, the first few move fine, but then the file rate at the top of FFS drops to almost zero and I start getting pop-up errors:
"ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the file specified. [MoveFileEx]"
3) With the error still up waiting for me to select what to do, I went to the old location of the file and verified it was not there. I then went to the new location and found it had already been moved. I selected ignore and watched as FFS created a temp file in the new location, I am assuming copied from the other source, and replaced the already moved file with the copied file.
4) Once I cancel the sync, the log shows this (I removed the file path information). I did not include it, but the log goes on to show it creating the replacement file for the one I selected to ignore the error.
4:02:22 PM Info Moving file
4:03:11 PM Info Cannot move file
ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED: Access is denied. [MoveFileEx]
-> Automatic retry
4:03:16 PM Info Moving file
4:06:40 PM Error Cannot move file
ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the file specified. [MoveFileEx]
I believe this has to be related to bandwidth and how FFS handles the timing/triggers for the transfers. I am not sure if the network became saturated (doubtful) or if the Synology NAS became unresponsive for a short time. I am leaning towards the NAS being unresponsive because I have noticed both of my Synology NAS's react slowly when using any of the GUI's.
For the time being, I am going to sync all 80,000 pictures in small chunks using FFS, but I would really like to figure out how to get FFS to not run into this issue when syncing large numbers of files. Thank you for any advice or help.
1) If I sync a few files, they are moved with no issues. The log clearly states the move and the run time of the action is in-line with a file move rather than copy.
2) If I sync a lot of files, the first few move fine, but then the file rate at the top of FFS drops to almost zero and I start getting pop-up errors:
"ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the file specified. [MoveFileEx]"
3) With the error still up waiting for me to select what to do, I went to the old location of the file and verified it was not there. I then went to the new location and found it had already been moved. I selected ignore and watched as FFS created a temp file in the new location, I am assuming copied from the other source, and replaced the already moved file with the copied file.
4) Once I cancel the sync, the log shows this (I removed the file path information). I did not include it, but the log goes on to show it creating the replacement file for the one I selected to ignore the error.
4:02:22 PM Info Moving file
4:03:11 PM Info Cannot move file
ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED: Access is denied. [MoveFileEx]
-> Automatic retry
4:03:16 PM Info Moving file
4:06:40 PM Error Cannot move file
ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the file specified. [MoveFileEx]
I believe this has to be related to bandwidth and how FFS handles the timing/triggers for the transfers. I am not sure if the network became saturated (doubtful) or if the Synology NAS became unresponsive for a short time. I am leaning towards the NAS being unresponsive because I have noticed both of my Synology NAS's react slowly when using any of the GUI's.
For the time being, I am going to sync all 80,000 pictures in small chunks using FFS, but I would really like to figure out how to get FFS to not run into this issue when syncing large numbers of files. Thank you for any advice or help.
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- Posts: 3603
- Joined: 11 Jun 2019
I'm guessing simply extending a timeout error may resolve it from the FFS side. The root problem is the delayed access times from the NAS though, and this would just be slapping some duct tape on a leaky ceiling. It'll come back again, possibly as a bigger issue
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- Joined: 29 Mar 2020
If what you are saying is true, does that mean the solution is to fix the NAS so that it is able to keep up with the transfer speed from FFS or would it require FFS to change the code on how it dealt with slow or delayed access? Thanks again.
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- Posts: 3603
- Joined: 11 Jun 2019
both would work, but the NAS is the bigger issue to fix
