Topic: FreeFileSync - Alternatives to Sync Toy (Read 17755 times)

jmone · « **on:** December 11, 2012, 04:29:11 pm »

I've always had issues with SyncToy wanting to overrite files that are the same between my two pools. This was not too bad when the pools were small but as they have grown so does the time taken to do these unnecessary syncs. Googling the issue seems to bring up lots of posts with this issue but not firm fixes (SyncToy has not been updated for a few years now). Any way I had a bit of a look around at what alternatives there are and after trying a couple have settled on Free FileSync for now - http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/ So far so good.

It cleaned up a bunch of stuff the SyncToy had left on my target pool and did not have the need to unnecessarily sync stuff. It also does not seem to use Hidden "DAT" files in every directory like Synctoy did. It has a easy to use GUI and importantly the ability to preview and manipulate the list prior to sync. It was also pretty quick (another tool I tried was so slow generating the preview I had to can it after 45mins).

nwboater · « **Reply #1 on:** December 11, 2012, 04:44:43 pm »

Wish I had seen this two weeks ago. After studying this thread http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=73097.0
on Backup I purchased Allway Sync. Inflatable Mouse had been using it and one of the features I liked was retention of deleted/changed files. I see that your FreeFileSync also does that.

Anyway I have been pleased with Allway Sync for the short time I've been running it. Easy to use. Only difficulty I've had is doing a drive that have some .jtv files on them. (Wish I could convert these to something else!) There are literally thousands of files for one movie and Allway Sync wont finish its Analyze process if there is much more than a couple hundred thousand files. So I had to split the drive that had the .jtv files on it into about 4 'Jobs' in Allway. Wonder if this might be an issue with FreeFileSync?

Thanks jmone for the reference to this software.

Rod

mojave · « **Reply #2 on:** December 11, 2012, 05:19:07 pm »

Since I rip at both work and home, I use FreeFileSync to keep my home and work music folders synced up. I sync to an external hard drive and then sync back to one of the computers. I also use it to for a quick backup of some work stuff. It works great. I think you can even set it to automatically sync.

jmone · « **Reply #3 on:** December 11, 2012, 05:19:55 pm »

I've noticed no issues on job size with either SyncToy, FreeFileSync or DirSyncPro (the other one I tried) over my largest pair which is just under 200K items. I'm sure all of these progs have their own "features/bugs" etc & if I come across any on FreeFileSync I'll post here.

With JTV - I record to TS (still uses JTV when TS but the recorded file is then in TS). There was also a JTV --> TS repack but I think it has been replaced with the video transcoding options (not for me however).

nwboater · « **Reply #4 on:** December 11, 2012, 05:31:53 pm »

Quote from: jmone on December 11, 2012, 05:19:55 pm

I've noticed no issues on job size with either SyncToy, FreeFileSync or DirSyncPro (the other one I tried) over my largest pair which is just under 200K items. I'm sure all of these progs have their own "features/bugs" etc & if I come across any on FreeFileSync I'll post here.

With JTV - I record to TS (still uses JTV when TS but the recorded file is then in TS). There was also a JTV --> TS repack but I think it has been replaced with the video transcoding options (not for me however).

Good to know that job size has not been an issue for you so far.

Now that MC can record to ts files with an HDPVR I only do it in ts. Another advantage is that Comskip works on ts, but not jtv. The jtv files are old ones before I was able to switch.

I sure wish there was a good way to convert. The transcoding conversion they have degrades way too much for me too.

Rod

jmone · « **Reply #5 on:** December 11, 2012, 05:45:30 pm »

Last conversation I had with Yaobing, any Direct Show based editor / muxer "should" be able to open up JTV files ... but I never did find one that worked with them (but that was a couple of years ago now). There was also the JTV to MKV mux option but it too had issues and is now gone.

I should say that I still need to remux the TS files (using tsmuxer) created by MC if I want to manipulate them in others probs as it currently dumps all the DVB-T streams into the TS Container in additional to the main Video, Audio, Sub ones.

nwboater · « **Reply #6 on:** December 11, 2012, 05:48:25 pm »

Quote from: jmone on December 11, 2012, 05:45:30 pm

Last conversation I had with Yaobing, any Direct Show based editor / muxer "should" be able to open up JTV files ... but I never did find one that worked with them (but that was a couple of years ago now). There was also the JTV to MKV mux option but it too had issues and is now gone.

I should say that I still need to remux the TS files (using tsmuxer) created by MC if I want to manipulate them in others probs as it currently dumps all the DVB-T streams into the TS Container in additional to the main Video, Audio, Sub ones.

Sorry to hear that, but thanks for posting.

Cheers,
Rod

InflatableMouse · « **Reply #7 on:** December 12, 2012, 12:54:41 am »

If you're still looking have a look at AllwaySync as well. A lot of useful options for syncing and can sync to cloud services as well.

I had 2 minor issues, one with bi-directional syncing when I edited music tags on both the pc and the server, trying to keep both folders identical. It sometimes messed up not keeping the latest or copying files back that I deleted on the other side. Nothing really shocking and I ditched bi-directional syncing anyways as I only tag on the server.

Another issue I had was when I made a mistake in target folder and somehow created a loop. It started syncing indefinitely and created more subfolders than Windows or any OS for that matter could handle. Took me HOURS to manually edit each folder to 1 letter names to shorten the name until eventually some Linux live boot CD would allow me to delete the folder from the disk.

What I find very useful are all the options to determine when to copy, what to do on conflict/errors/warning, and backup deleted/modified to different folders with a retention time. For instance, deleted files are kept in a _DELETED folder for 14 days on the server.

dean70 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 12, 2012, 03:38:53 pm »

You could try 2BrightSparks SyncBack - I use the pro version and it works well for backups/sync. There is also a free version available.

nwboater · « **Reply #9 on:** December 12, 2012, 03:43:26 pm »

InflatableMouse & Dean70,

Thanks for the suggestions if they were directed at me. But as I said in post #1 above about two weeks ago I purchased AllwaySync.

Rod

jmone · « **Reply #10 on:** December 14, 2012, 05:04:38 am »

Actually - my bigest sync is about 500K items and it works perfectly. I also get around 100MB/sec between the two drive bender pools when using FreeFileSync. Pretty Happy with the change from Sync Toy I have to say... Especially for a Free Tool!

jmone · « **Reply #11 on:** December 18, 2012, 01:52:28 am »

So far Loving FreeFileSync - easy and no false positives. Goodby Sync Toy!

nwboater · « **Reply #12 on:** December 18, 2012, 08:58:58 am »

Quote from: jmone on December 18, 2012, 01:52:28 am

So far Loving FreeFileSync - easy and no false positives. Goodby Sync Toy!

Thanks for the updates jmone. Next weekend I may give it a try to see how it compares to AllwaySync.

Rod

jmone · « **Reply #13 on:** December 19, 2012, 02:03:17 am »

FYI: FreeFile Sync Takes about 8min to preview 550,000 items between my two Drive Pools over the Network then the copying spped is around (over a gigabyte NW):
- Large Files (eg Videos) = 100MB+/Sec
- Med Files (eg Music) = 35MB/Sec
- Small Files (eg TXT) = 2MB/Sec

MrHaugen · « **Reply #14 on:** December 19, 2012, 06:21:35 am »

I've used Super Flexible File Synchronizer for a couple of years now. It got a ton of settings, and can be a bit non intuitive, but it is certainly adaptive to most needs. It's not free though.

jmone · « **Reply #15 on:** January 09, 2013, 05:02:29 pm »

FYI - In discussion with Glynor in another thread he uses "Goodsync" (cost about $30). One benefit it does has is it allows you to set a maximum amount of bandwidth (FreeFileSync has a priority option but I still manage to saturate the NW during a sync). I did take it for a test run but will stick to FreeFileSync:
- Seemed a bit slower (but it did pick up the pace)
- Free File Sync does not create files on you HDD, Goodsync does (but only in one dedicated folder on each end) where as Sync Toy used to drop one in each folder!

So ... Heaps of choices out there so I'm sure there are ones that will suit all of our slightly different needs.

MrC · « **Reply #16 on:** January 09, 2013, 05:09:58 pm »

I'm curious if anyone here has used or tried any of the rsync variants that work on Windows...

HiFiTubes · « **Reply #17 on:** April 22, 2013, 03:13:50 am »

Is there any benefit to getting MC to do this, given MC is the app doing the tagging etc.?

If I make any tag change, I assume Date Modified is changed? Is that what most all of these 3rd party apps use?

jmone · « **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2013, 05:37:18 am »

FreeFileSync offer two options, one based on "File Time and Size" (which I use) and is fine and also one based on "File Content" (bitsum) but it would take days to do this on a large library. I'm still very happy with FreeFileSync - it is quick, free, and just works.

Details form the Read Me are:

Code: [Select]

I. Compare by "File time and size"
This variant considers two files with the same name as equal when both modification time and file size match. The following categories are distinguished:

file exists on one side only

left only

right only

file exists on both sides

different date

left newer

right newer

same date

equal

conflict (same date, different size)




II. Compare by "File content"
Two files with the same name are marked as equal if and only if they have the same content. This option is more useful for consistency checks rather than backup operations since it is naturally slower. The file modification time is not taken into account at all.

file exists on one side only

left only

right only

file exists on both sides

equal

different content

jmone · « **Reply #19 on:** April 22, 2013, 05:42:47 am »

I should also point out that utils like FreeFileSync keep all files synced not just the ones seen by MC. I don't think MC is a good candidate for a backup / replication prog.

whatsup · « **Reply #20 on:** April 22, 2013, 05:50:00 am »

I have never had the issues u report with using synctoy2.1 other than it not deleting folders...but am always looking for alternatives...thanks

UPDATE: I have installed and used FreeFileSync and I do find it to be superior to Synctoy2.1 and I have uninstalled Synctoy2.1 and deleted it from my data base of used or using wares....Thanks for the heads up on FreeFileSync

HiFiTubes · « **Reply #21 on:** April 22, 2013, 11:18:31 am »

How many files are folks syncing?

I have at least 300K I'd like to run in one job. Alwaysync and TeraCopy don't cut it.

jmone · « **Reply #22 on:** April 22, 2013, 02:45:23 pm »

I have 600K in each of the two pools. It takes around 8mins to do the compare then XX time to do the copy based on the size.

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Author Topic: FreeFileSync - Alternatives to Sync Toy (Read 17755 times)