update removed jobs

[PMBauer@hotmail.com]

I updated to the latest windows version, and now all the jobs I created are gone. How do I get them back?

[Plerry]

Depending on how you saved your FFS configurations, search your computer for *.ffs_gui or *.ffs_batch files.

[xCSxXenon]

I would search your user folder first, then the FFS program folder if it doesn't find them. This will be faster and they are unlikely to be anywhere else unless you saved them in a weird spot

[WillSchneider8]

Okay I see where the jobfiles are, now what? Is there an import feature? Orr, how to set the new version to use the jobs where they live?

Answering my own question:

The jobs are in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\FreeFileSync
That folder contains GlobalSettings.XML
The xml settings file lists all the jobs.
In the case of having created a Folder Junction to/from this folder, this folder should have been manually backed up before updating. The update seems to clobber the Junction, and create the folder new, with a default GlobalSettings.XML that has no jobs.
Just gotta re-create the Junction and restore the backup GlobalSettings.XML over the default empty one.

[xCSxXenon]

I wouldn't restore an old version of GlobalSettings.xml, it likely lacks modifications required for the newer version of FFS. In FFS, you can click the "open" button and add them from the browser window that opens.

[WillSchneider8]

I understand, but we're talking 56 jobs, so "likely" is not good enough; would not want to touch those one by one. However, "open" then multi-select does yes result in importing all 56. Of course this fails to preserve the state of the previous run.

[xCSxXenon]

It may be worth moving these configurations to a new location entirely. I save mine outside of the AppData folder and have never had an issue with them disappearing after an update. The newer version of FFS should open the GlobalSettings file just fine and 'update' it when FFS is closed. Maybe the junction to it has some effect, I'm not sure why you would have a junction to it or what it would cause during an update.

[WillSchneider8]

Good advice. Agree moving everything possible out of AppData is a good thing; haven't seen a way to do that from inside FFS. (%ffs_path% is the installed program-folder, not the data-folder.)

My command line specifies to use the GlobalSettings.XML in my custom data-folder (outside AppData) not in the program-folder; the FFS folder inside AppData is the Junction/live copy. Have not tried running without that Junction existing (the runs right after the update, when it was a real folder and empty except for a default config-file, does not count).

The job-entries inside the active config file point to my custom data-folder. Agree not sure how the jobs went missing from the UI, but that's not so surprising give the non-standard folder setup. It's possible the install program has a "Run FFS now" checkbox, which will use the default config location not my custom.

The Junction trick is for programs that cannot use a location other than in AppData. I've had other programs delete and re-create when installing to a folder that is actually a junction, but that was for the program-folder. Even so, I see how the same could happen for the data-folder.