Recurring "Updates" That "Don't"

Posts: 1038 · therube 19 Jun 2020, 18:29

I've got (2) RTS running.
In one of them, I'm getting two recurring "updates" - seemingly successful, are not updating.
And I'm out of ideas as to why?

[01:50:34 PM]  Info:  Synchronizing folder pair: Update>

                          C:\USR\JCS

                          \\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS

[01:50:34 PM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2OPENAP"

[01:50:34 PM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTDT"

[01:50:34 PM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTRL"

Every (3 minutes, as I have it set [kind of]) I get another duplicated copy of these files in my _VERSIONS (versioning enabled) directory.

The files are not open, are not in use. Are no different from any of the other files that were backup up initially, or any of the other files that have since changed & backed up, successfully.

These 3... ? And as it is, C2OPENAP, source & backup are identical, only differing in timestamp.
Source is newer, 06/18/2020 02:32:06 PM, vs. backup, 06/18/2020 01:09:12 PM.

Comparison is by Time and Size.
I do have Copy Locked Files enabled (though shouldn't be in play, in this case).

Ideas?

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 19 Jun 2020, 19:59

Something is updating the timestamp and causing it to sync

Posts: 1038 · therube 19 Jun 2020, 20:25

But that's the thing, it is NOT updating (the destination).
Source date/time & destination date/time are unchanged (as shown above), have remain unchanged.

(Size/contents are the same, the files are identical [presently].)

Yet, I get continual log files (seemingly) saying it was updated:

|06/19/2020  JCS.2.NAS_DB_BU

|

|    Completed successfully

|    Items processed: 2 (99.0 KB)

|    Total time: 00:00:01

|________________________________

...

[04:27:54 PM]  Info:  Synchronizing folder pair: Update>

                          C:\USR\JCS

                          \\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS

[04:27:54 PM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2OPENAP"

[04:27:54 PM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTRL"

(The third file I mentioned, CPCNTDT, I "forcibly" updated it's source, & it has since updated for that change & not gotten "stuck" like these other two remaining files.

I also excluded one other file that was causing an issue, blmgr.txt.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 20 Jun 2020, 07:10

Sounds like: viewtopic.php?t=7082

Posts: 1038 · therube 22 Jun 2020, 16:01

(I'm going to have to work my way through that.
In the meantime (& I'll just babble & update as I get time...)...)

So today, I updated some files:

__________________________________

|06/22/2020  JCS.2.NAS_DB_BU

|

|    Completed successfully

|    Items processed: 25 (2.18 MB)

|    Total time: 00:00:03

|_________________________________

...

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2CRAFT"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2DEPT"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPCUR"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPDED"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPDTL"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPFIC"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPFRG"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPHRS"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPNTD"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPQTR"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPSTP"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPYTD"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2INSMST"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2MNTEEO"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2OPENAP"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2PAYTOT"

[11:08:21 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2VDRIVH"

[11:08:22 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2WKLDTL"

[11:08:22 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CMPMST"

[11:08:22 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTDT"

[11:08:22 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTRL"

[11:08:22 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\PROG\Pr00"

What happens - when I look at the source & backup files, comparing size/date, some (not all) of the files that backed up have OLD date/time. (Lack of a size change may not necessarily be an indicator of an actual file change.)

When I look further, the source & backup files are identical - so only the timestamp is different - & again, for only some of the files.

And what happens after that, is that these "old" files repeatedly "update" (but again their timestamps do not update) so are not recognized as having updated (when comparing based on size/date).

[11:39:35 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPCUR"

[11:39:35 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPDED"

[11:39:35 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPDTL"

[11:39:36 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPFRG"

[11:39:36 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPHRS"

[11:39:36 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\C2EMPNTD"

[11:39:36 AM]  Info:  Updating file "\\Nas\Complete Database Backup\USR\JCS\DATA\CPCNTRL"

And the next log shows the same... & the next... & the next...
(Perhaps it will resolve itself at some point?)

: FreeFileSync Continual (falsely) UPDATES.png (24.63 KiB) Viewed 1873 times

I'm backing up from an XP machine (source files) to a Synology NAS (using whatever their default "proprietary" OS is).

Posts: 1038 · therube 22 Jun 2020, 16:26

More...
These files (the C2*.* files, particularly, the once that didn't "update") are ... "transient", "temporary", kind of.
They persist, i.e. the files persist, though the data that is in them is transient, in that as I do my work, the files, data, are updated/changed - until I've finished my work and updated. Once I've updated, these changes/updates are "moved out", & once that is done, the file will be their prior state.

I.e., C2EMPHRS...

Say its initial state is:

As I do work, the data therein changes:

After I finish my work & files are updated, the file once again is in its initial state:

So before & after are identical.
The interim file, as I am working, before I have finished updating - has changed.

My RTS is scheduled for 3 minutes.
Quit possible that there has not been 3 minutes of "idle" time between FFS seeing a change (as I start working) & then by the time 3 minutes of idle has gone by - possibly it "missed" the "working state" of the file & when it actually goes to update, it is finding the "reverted state" - which at that point while identical to the source - except for date, oh I don't know, throws things off... where these sets of files end up "updating" continuously?

Let me look at my (C2EMPHRS) versioned files...

All are identical - 16 of them, at present (21, now), all dated 6-15-2020 (must have been the first time I did the initial FFS), all are the "initial state" of the file. So at no point did the "working", transient, updated copy of the file (before I updated things altogether - which would have then reverted the file to its initial state) get updated/backed up.

But, regardless of the above, why wouldn't a timestamp change (alone) have been sufficient to update the backup (including timestamp), which on next compare would find no changes & these "phantom" non-updates would no longer be scheduled - continuously.

Posts: 1038 · therube 22 Jun 2020, 18:02

So I think, if I "manually" copy from source to destination, then that surely will update the timestamp, & that will "fix" things.

You would think...

So I go about copying, C2EMPCUR, from source (right hand side) to destination (backup onto NAS, left hand side, very bottom of the list).

Watch the date - change!
From 6-22-2020, back to 6-15-2020.

Go figure.

: FFS vs NAS, round1, nowyouseeit.gif (184.72 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

Posts: 1038 · therube 22 Jun 2020, 18:32

(Synology) Hyper Backup allows you to back up applications and system configurations and restore them when needed to ensure data consistency. What’s more, this package also features block-level incremental backup, meaning that only files that have been changed compared to the initial versions will be backed up, while files that are simply renamed or duplicated will be deleted via cross-file deduplication to avoid unnecessary storage consumption.

So it looks like this "hyper backup" on the Synology end it what is causing this.
I'll see what I can figure out...

Posts: 1038 · therube 23 Jun 2020, 20:22

(What a convoluted, confusing morass Synology softwares are [IMHO]. And it runs within a browser - within a browser!, no less. Maybe they do this to make it "simple", but to me, it is anything but. It's a computer [NAS]. It's an OS & a file system. Treat it like one, not like a "web browser".)

Anyhow, don't know that I'll ever understand how to disable whatever crap it may have had running (believe me, I tried), so I set up a new directory (no, not a "directory", first you have to create a new "Shared Folder" [you wouldn't believe how long it took before I understood that distinction] under which you can then set up, directories.

Changed my _gui, _batch, _real, to point to the new location.
The "updated" (date/time) files, have updated - once, as expected.
And, if all goes as planned, RTS will sit there, doing nothing, until next week some time, when I actually update files once again, at which time I anticipate, they'll once again, update - once.

(Fingers crossed :-).)

So, seeming, all along it was unexpected quirkiness in the operation of the NAS, not a FFS issue.

Oh, & I also cleaned up all the (content duplicate) _versioning files which (up to now) had been accumulating - non-stop. (I'm well aware it was happening. Knowing that at some point I'd get to them.)

Posts: 1038 · therube 24 Jun 2020, 14:51

(Fingers crossed :-).)

So far good to go, nothing unexpected, unwanted. :-).