Agreed to update, then all windows closed and lost data

[dilbert99]

I'm running Windows of FFS that take many hours to even compare, let along sync. After I saw a message window saying it needed to update, I agreed, and then it closed all my windows and ignored all their progress. This wasted so many hours of time, I can't even tell you. It far exceeded the value of that which I paid for this program when I donated to the project, I can tell you that.

[xCSxXenon]

Why would you click update in the middle of a sync...?
Just venting I suppose?

[dilbert99]

There's a difference between "Update" and "Update and Restart" and even then it is common for programs to remember their "state" immediately before its "Restart" so as to not harm the user. Even then, I update Linux regularly, without it closing my programs or causing data loss etc. Other programs also may state "We need to restart this program to finish the update but if we do so, you will lose any unsaved data, do you want to restart now or later?". Is this really so much of a burden to expect such clear communication from FFS?

[xCSxXenon]

2021-07-18 15_28_15-C__Users_j.lewis_Documents_sync_OneDrive.ffs_batch.jpg (128.24 KiB) Viewed 1009 times

So you got a pop-up that said "Auto-update now or download manually from the FreeFileSync homepage?" and you clicked "auto update" instead of cancel?
I guess it could be more verbose, but I fail to see how someone could expect any more interaction after clicking auto-update. In fact, all I can imagine is complaints because auto-update isn't really auto if it needs further interaction.

[dilbert99]

"auto-update" doesn't necessarily mean "close the windows with the syncs and file comparisons that have been going on for hours and hours on end".

One solution is to add programming along the lines of the following (this is very crude):

If (Program_Needs_To_Restart_To_Finish_Update AND User_Is_Busy_Doing_Stuff)
{
then: Provide_Pop-pup_Window "We need to restart this program to finish updating
your software but it appears as though you are in the middle of some work that will
be lost or otherwise significantly disrupted if we restart now. Are you sure you want
 to Restart now or would you like FFS to finish the update the next time you open
  the program? (Restart Now) (Finish the Update Later When I'm not Busy)"
}
   


[xCSxXenon]

Yeah, I don't want a second pop-up after I click auto-update. It would be better to put a warning on the existing pop-up`

[dilbert99]

That could work too, but as my programming recommendation shows, the pop up wouldn't arise for everyone who clicked update, but would arise only for those who clicked update and were apparently mid-job after the update has been downloaded and the program needs to restart. If you were mid-job at that point, would you not appreciate it warning you its about to disrupt what you're doing? Sometimes you tell something to update, don't realize the update hasn't completed, and you start doing work. Granted, that's a small time frame with FFS, but there are always hiccups and delays in things that happen; my programming recommendation would address virtually all those contingencies to the benefit of the user.

[xCSxXenon]

Oh I see! I guess I forgot not everyone has the internet speeds I have... For me, the download is less than a second basically, but if it takes a few minutes, and even more so when syncing, I can easily see myself forgetting that I clicked that! I wonder if it would just as easy to put some code in that just loops until the syncs finish entirely

[dilbert99]

I reference that only as an example.

I repeat; not all programs forcibly reset mid project when updating. Even Microsoft Word will let you know you've changed something and that changes will be lost if you close the program without saving, are you sure you want to close the program. And I hate Microsoft Word.

In programming terms:
"Update Program" != "Close the program right now, or in 30 minutes, and lose any unsaved work"

You ever do a file comparison of over 10TB of data on slow external USB HDDs, plus meticulously go through, literally, 10's of thousands of files to make sure the sync program doesn't overwrite the wrong files, only to have the program unexpectedly restart itself, and lose all that progress, without you realizing that you had initiated such a command because it wasn't made clear that you were doing such? I'm sure if you had gone through that, you'd appreciate an additional pop-up window "IF and ONLY IF" you are mid project when it seeks to restart the program.

I'm no fan of additional pop-ups myself, but if it saves me time/work, I'll bite the bullet.

[xCSxXenon]

Yeah but if it saves you time/work and annoys the other thousands of people that use it, sorry but no

[dilbert99]

A fraction of a second for a pop up window is too much? Also, you keep ignoring the proposed code: "IF and ONLY IF" someone is in the middle of something that would be cancelled/lost from the reset, would such a pop-up arise. If you weren't working on something you wouldn't be affected. Only those who were doing something that would be cancelled/lost would be affected.

[Zenju]

The new version dialog is shown right after starting FreeFileSync. How is it possible that comparison has been running for hours at this point?

[Plerry]

In the Help, there is also the option: "Check for updates now".
This option does not seem available while running a Compare,
but after running the Compare (and before running the actual Sync) it is available again.
And Updating then will obviously make the user loose the Compare result data, but obviously no "real" data.
If this is what happened, the "issue" seems a bit related to the users own doing.
But perhaps a warning would not be out of place if there are still pending Compare results.

During a Sync, the "Check for updates now" is again not available (at least in the Windows version).

[dilbert99]

I did not actively seek out the "Check for updates Now". I saw a dialog box appear that offered/recommended/suggested it to me without informing me it would close the windows and make me lose all my comparison progress/syncing progress.

Now that you mention it, it is possible I had just opened another window of FFS while mid sync in another window when it did this. Recently I have been running about 4 FFS windows simultaneously due to the comparisons/syncs I need to have done.