Newbie Help

Get help for specific problems
Posts: 2
Joined: 17 Sep 2012

cowboychincs

Hi folks... tried to look through the posts to get more info, but found that I
just needed to ask my question.

Just a little clarification on how to sync two folders correctly....

I have three separate folders on two different network drives that I would
like to sync to just one folder. So lets call them folders "A" "B" and "C"
they all contain my photos from various points in time

There are a LOT of subfolders and files that are duplicate in each of these
folders... but there are subfolders and files in each that are not propagated
to the other two primary folders...

I DO NOT want to lose any pictures from any of these folders... thus am scared
to just starting the sync without knowing what I am doing first... but I did
it anyway... from what I can tell, I think it did what I wanted it to do... I
sync'ed the oldest folder "C" and the next oldest "B"... putting "C" as the
left folder and "B" as the right folder... so now both of these folders are
exactly the same... so now what do I do with folder "A"? Does it go on the
right or left side when I sync it with either "B" or "C"?

All I really want in the end of all of this is to have all of my pictures in
one folder on a network drive so that I can manage a backup folder on yet
another drive after I am finished... as I dont want to lose any of my
pictures....

Does any of this make any sense to you? Hopefully you can advise me that (A) I
have not messed up already and (B) what the next step is to have all of my
pics in one place in all of the subfolders I have previously set up....

Many thanks for any help!!
User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 7307
Joined: 9 Dec 2007

Zenju

> scared to just starting the sync without knowing what I am doing first...
but I did it anyway...


Congrats on your "can-do" attitude! ;)


> so now what do I do with folder "A"? Does it go on the right or left side
when I sync it with either "B" or "C"?


You haven't yet mentioned what comparison variant you are using. If you have
left everything at default (= automatic), then you're probably fine: On first
sync, files existing on one side are copied over to the other, new files are
copied over old files. Then beginning with the second sync, the database file
is used and will propagate *any* change on one side to the other, no matter if
it's a file creation or deletion.
By chosing "automatic" variant you conceptually say: I am treating both left
and right side as the "master" repository and want to propagate changes both
ways. In contrast, mirror variant says, left hand side is the master
repository, right hand side will be adapted to match.
Feel free to ask, if there is anything yet unclear.
Posts: 2
Joined: 17 Sep 2012

cowboychincs

Dear Zenju....

Many thanks, that helps LOTS... I was totally getting confused as to which
side was the master or what would happen.... I did leave the comparison
variant unchanged, so am guessing it was =automatic... so I must have passed
that test huh?

OK... so I guess my plan is to run it again on "A" and the new "B"... and
leave the variant unchanged again... so by doing this, I will end up with all
three folders exactly the same... which, in my case, is a good thing... and I
will have not lost any pictures along the way, and after I am finished with
this last sync, I will have two folders that I can simply copy to a portable
drive and store off-premise... to give me a safe place to store all of my
pictures. Then from this point forward, I will only add pictures to "A" and
then I can once again, do the sync to either "B" or "C" and again, use it for
my backup.... this should help me a bunch... making me more confident that I
have all of my pics backed up... once I master this, I will move on to my
Documents folders and do the same... in a short amount of time, I should have
all my folders sync'ed and thus backed up...

I got myself into this mess over the last 3-4 years, by changing out my PC in
total twice... I would move my files off of the old computer to an external
drive on my network... then replace the computer and start all over populating
the normal Windows 7 standard directories with my new files.... uugghh.... so
I got myself into this mess... now trying to dig out of it, but trying to do
it wisely....

Thanks again... maybe over time, I will get the hang of this great piece of
software you have..... am sure the instructions are clear for some folks, but
they were not real clear to me at first glance.... not sure what I would
recommend, maybe some examples like what I was trying to do would help...

Regards!
User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 7307
Joined: 9 Dec 2007

Zenju

> plan is to run it again on "A" and the new "B"


Each directory you include into your network of syncs will also become a
master repository, e.g. if you Sync A <-> B and B <-> C, then any files
changed (created, updated, deleted) on A, B and C will propagate to all other
repositories, on first chance (=sync). Therefore the "automatic" variant is
often the most convenient one, but be aware that you now need to take care to
not mess with more than one directory. This can be a burden in contrast to
"mirror" where only a single directory tree needs to be maintained by the
user.


> am sure the instructions are clear for some folks, but they were not real
clear to me at first glance


FFS is optimized for usability, but not necessarily for first-time users. The
idea is that those users go to menu->help, read the first basic instructions,
then get the rest of relevant information in the sync config dialogs, and
tooltip descriptions.