Copy files, do not mirror deletions, to variable folders?

[bannerpeak]

I've only used ffs in the most rudimentary fashion, and even after checking the feature list I'm not sure if it can do what I'd like. I would like it to:

[1] copy changed files periodically to a target folder whose name would mirror the copy date
for example I'd end up with folders like this
f:\ffsbackups\202210\01 (that's oct 1 2022)
f:\ffsbackups\202210\02
f:\ffsbackups\202210\03
I think it is doable via the macro functionality? The target files would have the same name every day; only changed files need to be copied each day, to the folder named for the day.

[2] for a different set of files that are already backups that have datetime stamps in the file names, when copying, do not mirror deletions on the source side. The backups are only persisted for 2 weeks, but I would like to copy them to a separate drive that maintains a two month history.

[3] Is there a 'delete files in target folder that are older than x days' feature?

Thank you

[xCSxXenon]

1) Yes, use macros. You should also use the time span option if you only want the previous day of changes.
2) Deleting from source only happens with two-way syncing, you should be using update or mirror by the sounds of what you want to do.
3) Not in FFS, CMD has a utility 'forfiles' to do this. Are you wanting to do the repeatedly or just once to clean up a folder?

[bannerpeak]

Thank you for the reply.
Yes I'm testing with Update.
forfiles, that's a new one to me, I will check it out.

If I did copy an extended hive to a new folder at every backup (f:\ffsbackups\202210\03), it'd contain only the new and changed files, correct? I'm not certain because if ffs compares what is in the new daily folder, which would be empty, with the source, then every day it'd pull the full set. If however it is tracking from it's own internally manitained database of what it (ffs) has done in the past, it would copy only the new/changed, which is what I'm after.

Also, and this will be in the docs, but does ffs offer compression when files land at the target? There are other ways to do it, just curious.

[xCSxXenon]

I'm not certain because if ffs compares what is in the new daily folder, which would be empty, with the source, then every day it'd pull the full set.

That is why you would set the time span to one day

FFS does not have built-in compress options

[bannerpeak]

Thanks, great info, appreciate it.

[bannerpeak]

Is there a way to preserve the original datetime on the file that is copied?

[bannerpeak]

Time Span - would that be compare sync settings, filter, Time Span: Today?

[xCSxXenon]

No: viewtopic.php?t=6123

Yes

[bannerpeak]

An issue is that the folders are not created automatically.
When I run the batch manually it warns that the folder 2022\10\15 does not yet exist; but will be created automatically, and if I hit he button "Ignore", and then sync, the folder is created. But when I run as a scheduled task that issue seems to block.

[xCSxXenon]

That's interesting... When running manually and that warning shows up, what are the exact choices you have to move on?

[bannerpeak]

Manually it goes like this:

2022-10-16 08_30_57-Window.png (7.76 KiB) Viewed 628 times

after I click "Ignore" the dialog confirming intent to sync appears.
After the sync, which does create the new "day" folder (16 in this case) a warning is reported:

2022-10-16 08_32_12-Window.png (20.22 KiB) Viewed 628 times

[Zenju]

Here's a little bugfix:

FreeFileSync 11.27
------------------
Fixed free disk space calculation if target folder not yet created


[bannerpeak]

Thanks I'll try that when it's available. Seems to be not yet published.

[bannerpeak]

I have 11.27 now, thank you, didn't solve the issue.
Today was the first time it ran with 11.27. It is different; I saw this dialog at the scheduled task time:

2022-10-18 21_17_51-FreeFileSync – Warning.png (8.61 KiB) Viewed 578 times

I switched to ffs main window...and have no idea what I'm supposed to do there, but to get the backup done I ran the sync manually, and the folder was created after I hit the Ignore button.
This is the target path:
K:\apps backup\%Year%\%Month%\%Day%
is that not right?

[bannerpeak]

Oh, possibly it is ok - I'd forgotten that the scheduled task was disabled. It's enabled now, will see later when it triggers.

[bannerpeak]

It is not working.
- At the scheduled time, the task ran, but is marked as having been terminated by the user.
- The daily folder is not created.
- The log file that opens from the ffs application is from yesterday's manual run
- every minute the pc since the task ran, there is a chime.
- the chime continued until I ended the ffs executables in task manager

I don't get it...I know this is a routine function of ffs.

[bannerpeak]

Today the task has been running for 30 min but it's obviously stalled - the day folder, 20, is not created. The every minute chime is back.

[bannerpeak]

Pattern repeated.
Only diff is that when I terminated one of the two ffs processes that continued to run after I ran it manually and closed ffs, only one of the ffs processes closed. other times both closed after I closed one. The two versions are 32 vs 64.

[bannerpeak]

I guess I'm at a dead end with this.
I'll try to remember to run the sync manually every day.

[bannerpeak]

I had noticed something odd about the task - even though the account was using to create the tasks was a domain admin account, the task aways wanted to be saved to run as an account with the same name, no domain suffix (ie it changed from acct@dom.com to acct). It was listed in task scheduler as a local account; but there is no local account with that name.
I changed the run as account to Domain Admins. The old error went away. FFS did pop up the warning dialog shown above, "the following folders do not yet exist:"; on the second test, I checked the box that dismisses future instances of the warning; and now it seems to be running ok.