File sync using cached remote data

[jnewman67]

I use a program called SyncBackPro to back up several of my servers - it has some great features. But the one that I really like is called Fast Backup, and I think FreeFileSync could vastly benefit from this feature.

My short experience with FFS (free version) is that the comparisons can take a long time (I have an empty folder structure that contains 320+ folders, no files) and it takes about 3 minutes to just do a compare (File Time and Size). The remote FTP site is the problem - it just takes a long time to recursively work through the folders, some 6 layers deep. When I start adding files into those bottom folders, it's going to get even worse.

The Fast Backup approach to that is to scan and cache that remote information the first time they are compared, then only use the cache for comparison sake after that, and update the cache with local information when files are copied across. Yes, this means that any changes to the remote data will be ignored (though you can force a recache any time you'd like), but in a Mirror situation, I don't really care anyway. The advantage is that the comparison is super quick, and for large amounts of data that change frequently, and when that data is on a network file share or FTP site, it gets down to the business of moving data much sooner, and cuts the backup time by hours sometimes.

Maybe this is already available, but I've not seen it mentioned in the manual or within the software in a way that would indicate that's how it works. The Detect Moved Files looks like it's already part way there (by using a database apparently), but it looks like it's only used for finding moved files - it still compares the live remote site each time.

Am I missing something, or would this truly be a new feature?

Thanks.

[jnewman67]

EDIT: the syncbackpro software can be found @ 2brightsparks.com:
https://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro.html
in case anyone is interested.
There's no monetary value to me in you looking at it - they don't know I exist :) I just really like the software.