[Solved] Synchronizing Freezes My Windows 10 OS Entirely

[eeriemyxi]

Windows Version: 10.0.19045.2545
FreeFileSync Version: 11.29 • 64 Bit • 16/12/2022
Disk Type: HDD
Total Files: ~6,100
Total Size: ~39 GB

Hello, I am trying to sync some of my data on my Windows 10, but while it can finish the file scan without making my disk struggle, when I actually try to sync the data on three GDrive accounts (each account will get a different folder from the total amount of files), my Task Manager when sorted by disk usage sometimes it is "System" on top with .1 MB/s usage or sometimes it is FreeFileSync showing .1 MB/s usage, and sometimes it is no process at all showing any disk usage. I suspect that it is trying to use beyond 100% of my disk's transferring capability which is causing such behavior of my Task Manager (such that it can't even show me the accurate data) and there is some kind of "disk leak" going on. I tried to get the logs, but there is just one log of that one time several hours ago (the first time I tried to sync my files) when it either didn't make my disk struggle or I stopped it right before it did.

When I click the button to sync the files it says "Creating file" then the timer goes on... Last time it was responding for six minutes with the graph not showing any progress (albeit it was still using 100% of my disk) and it was saying "Creating file" the whole time.

To be precise about the weird Task Manager, while it does not show very high disk usage all the time, and sometimes shows no disk usage at all by any process, it still does say that my disk usage is 100% as the total which is shown at the top in Windows 10; and I can trust that value by how weirdly my PC freezes whenever I try to sync my files. It keeps happening even after clicking "Stop" and even after ending the task on the Task Manager.

There is a "sync.ffs_lock" file in each folder I tried to sync but I never bothered to remove them in case it ends up corrupting the app.

I have tried syncing my files at least thrice by now, first time I had my Windows Security real-time protection on, the second time also, but the third time which I did just an hour ago, I had it off but it still happened (the freeze).

To be frank, I cannot believe my PC is so weak such that it can't even upload ~6,100 files to a server one-by-one (I don't have the paid/donation edition). This should be a bug.

[xCSxXenon]

Is is freezing the whole computer? Or just FFS / File Explorer? Sounds like a really slow mechanical hard drive, possibly failing

[eeriemyxi]

Is is freezing the whole computer?

Yes, it is freezing the whole computer.

Or just FFS / File Explorer?

No the entire computer OS.

Sounds like a really slow mechanical hard drive, possibly failing

I don't know. What I do know is that, I run Spotify, Arch on WSL2 (for programming work using VIM and stuff), Firefox, 5-6 background apps for ease of use, and it still doesn't freeze and runs smoothly.
Yesterday, I had downloaded Photoshop 2023 and Windows Defender was literally scanning every damn file that Photoshop was using, disk speed was at 100% with 60-250 MB/s speed but, it, still, didn't, freeze, completely (just sometimes).
Maybe, it is stuck doing some disk work and is running multiple threads to do it, so many that even Windows is unable to transfer crucial things to have itself not freeze at least.

I honestly can't digest uploading about six thousand files to a server could literally freeze my computer so bad.

[therube]

If you upload by some other means, do you still get the freezing?

[eeriemyxi]

Hello everybody. Thank you for your kind support and service, after several tweaks and restarts, it didn't seem to resolve the issue. I tried re-authenticating my accounts, that didn't work. However, as retries went on, my fear to end up corrupting my disk grew too. I then decided to not use this wonderful open-source project and now I am using Rclone, a CLI client. While it is not as convenient on a daily basis as much as a GUI app would have been, I really don't have alternatives which fills my demands. It seems that this software is only utilized properly when you have an SSD or some new innovation of HDD, which I cannot afford. Thank you. Rclone is working wonderfully, the disk usage is about 30% or less, it didn't freeze, life is happy and cozy again!

Regards, Myxi. Goodbye!

[Zenju]

I don't see how FreeFileSync could be responsible for freezing a whole OS, while the symptoms do not occur for Rclone. But for the record:

There's RunWithBackgroundPriority: https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=expert-settings

[eeriemyxi]

Well, because Rclone is working well, I wouldn't want to get into this again; however I'd like to point out that, in one instance of the several tweaks that I did, there I set the priorities of all the processes of this software before synchronizing the data to lowest option available through Task Manager's "details" tab -- but that didn't do much of a help either. Maybe it has checks to set the priorities to normal again before synchronizing, IDK.

Another thing I want to point out is that, before starting this topic, I searched "freeze" in the forum and there was another person who also had similar issue on ArchLinux but for them it magically got fixed on some Debian-based distribution. I believe that it is some bug somewhere where it is starting very questionable number of threads to do some task but is unable to do it. As I said the disk speed was .1 MB/s, it may suggest that it is trying to transfer some very small size files but some bug is causing it to be stuck on a loop. That's just my little speculation though.