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Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

SyncBackFree is the freeware version of SyncBack. It is *not* an evaluation version of SyncBackPro/SE.
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genveers
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Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

I am not sure when this started to happen as I have the program set for auto syncing, but I noticed that what happens is that when the copying begins it always copies the same files that it copied last week. If I run the profile in these situations Syncback just copies them again

* If I run the profile before the scheduled time
* If i manually run the profile once and then do it again 5 minutes after
* If I let Syncback run it's schedule backup and then I run it afterwards

Any situation, it always copies the same files as if they changed or were altered. None of the files have been changed or anything along those lines that should trigger Syncback to believe the file has changed.

I have deleted the profile and then created a new one, same problem. Getting annoying since everyday I am saving mroe and more files, but syncback keeps going back to the first backup that was ran and backups all files again? It is backing up files from a month ago and those files have not changed in any manner.

Syncback has been rock solid for me up to this strange behavior. I get no error messages, it is just that it is taking longer and longer since Syncback continues to copy files that it should not. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
mmullins_98
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by mmullins_98 »

What is the destination media ie. cloud, network drive, USB drive, or USB stick?
Have you in fact verified the files have been copied to the destination?
If you delete a file on the destination does it get replaced after you run again?
If you run manually does the differences window show all files will be copied?
genveers
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

Thank you for the reply m98. I have two servers and one is the main which we access and the other backs up. I have verified them, some are Excel sheets, Word docs, music videos, training videos. Some of these were made two months ago and have not been touched since.

I have not tried the delete at destination and run again. Since I see the file name as it begins to copy I will try starting with that particular file or maybe over the weekend I will just write down all the file names and delete all at one time

I turned the difference window off so i will turn on again and see what it says.

Thank you for jogging the brain, will come back and let you know

Thank you
genveers
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

UPDATE - This may have something to do with the issue I am having. I found a post here that the guy is having the same issue. Plus another person also joined that topic and has same issue.

I noticed one thing to add, the time stamps. Example, I have a file that is timestamped 3-23-2020 at 11:32am

When Syncback runs and recopies the exact same file the timestamp is today's date. It is timestamping the same Word doc as the day I run the backup.

What setting in Syncback offers that feature?
mmullins_98
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by mmullins_98 »

I don't think creation date is your problem.

In the Compare Options;
Ignore creation date & time changes: You can tell SyncBackFree to ignore changes to the creation date & time of files and directories. If you change this option so that you are not ignoring creation date & time changes then you should enable the option to copy create date & times for directories and files. se-pro-feature This option is only available in SyncBackSE and SyncBackPro. Changes in the creation date & time will always be ignored by SyncBackFree. For FTP the server must support the retrieval (and maybe setting) of creation dates and times. Many do not.


You may NOTE: Changes in the creation date & time will always be ignored by SyncBackFree.
genveers
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

OK, so I went and tried the most simple backup. First, two servers: A and B. On server A I moved all files that were showing up on the Difference listing to an entirely different computer so files are not on Server A. Server B I deleted the exact same files that were listed on the Differences.

Server A has a folder where there are two pictures; date stamped 1-24-2004 and 3-23-2020. No other files in this folder.

Server B has exact same two pictures and both files have a timestamps identical to what is detailed out on Server A folder; 1-24-2004 and 10-25-2019

I know we think the timestamp is nothing, but pointing this out for the test conducted. I ran Syncback and nothing popped up for the Differences listing and nothing changed in the folder in Server B; dates of two files are the same as the dates in Server A.

On my other computer I have another picture I transferred to Server A. Now the folder has three pictures with dates 1-24-2004, 10-25-2019 and 12-29-2019. Having two panes open to watch the folders in Server A and B I watched what happened. Ran Syncback and before the Difference pane appeared the file date stamped 12-29-2019 appears in the folder on Server B, but the date stamp on the file is today's date; 3-29-2020. Then the Difference listing appears and shows that single file and collision is listed for one file.

Question 1 - why is Syncback changing the date on the one new file and not the others? This should not happen.

I removed the file from Server A date stamped 10-25-2019 to another computer, deleted it from Server B and ran Syncback. All is well other than listing the 12-29-2019 collision file. Put file back from other computer to Server A and ran Syncback. It copied the file, but did not change the date; remained and copied file with 10-29-2019 date on both servers.

Adding all this detail and keeping it simple for the testing to see why Syncback is doing this behavior.
mmullins_98
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by mmullins_98 »

I assume you are running SyncbackFree and not a trial version of SE or Pro?

I assume we are dealing with windows file systems, if not let us know?
There are 3 dates for a file; Creation date, Modified date and Accessed date. When you just say "Date Stamped" then which date are you referring too? Syncbackfree doesn't deal with creation date.

Your original complaint says your files are being copied over the existing same files and taking a long time, so after your testing is this still a problem or not?
genveers
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

Yes, the free version. This is why I am here.

Servers are running FreeNAS. Files are Windows based; example picture is a standard jpg.

In the Windows pane there is a column "Date Modified", this is what I am referring to since it is changing for some files, but not others.

So in my example above, the file on server B now says under Date Modified 3-29-2020. That should not have changed since the file on server A was 12-29-2019.

As I mentioned I can copy another file with a Date modified of let's say 7-5-2018, syncback will copy that file to server B and it will still have a Date modified of 7-5-2018. However in this case Syncback is changing that file Date Modified to today's date and so when the backup runs it causes a collision. Two identical file names with different dates. That's the problem, Syncback should not be changing the Date modfied. Because it is then that is the reason for the collisions now.

Looking at the files this started to happen about 3-23-2020 or 3-25-2020. Looking back at my records that is about the time I updated to version 9.3.11.0, going to revert back to the older ones.
mmullins_98
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by mmullins_98 »

I ran a similar test just now with latest syncbackfree copying 38 various type files with older dates and all copied with the same date modified. The creation date was changed to 3/29/20 as expected.
You going back to the previous version is a good idea.
genveers
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by genveers »

Thanks for all your help m98. I am now on 9.3.4.0 and the condition does not exist.

I then updated again to 9.3.11.0 and then the condition exists again. Something wrong with the update. It is just weird that even after you run Syncback and all is copied to the server B, when you run it again it keeps copying the same files yet again and again to my server B. Looking at the collisions it says that the file on server B are newer than the ones on server A. Well of course they are since they are being date modified to today. So then it just on aimlessly copying files that it does not need to.

Some code got messed up somewhere along the lines here. Hopefully they can fix it and get this program patched. On to the next.

Thank you
Swapna
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Re: Copying and copying and copying. Need help on why?

Post by Swapna »

Hi,

Most likely, your destination device has problems retaining the Last Modified date/time file stamps, which our programs uses as one of the methods to compare files. Thus, SyncBackFree is proposing to recopy files again and again as the files copied to destination are stamped with 'date/time transferred to it'

I suggest evaluating with SyncBackPro/SE version and enable the option 'Force the file modification date & time to be correct' under: Modify profile > Expert > Copy/Delete > Advanced page, and see if it helps?

If you do not own a copy of SyncBackPro/SE V9 and wish to test it's functions, you are welcome to try our fully functional SyncBack, which we offer a free 30-day evaluation.

SyncBackPro:
http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/sof ... _Setup.exe

SyncBackSE:
https://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/so ... _Setup.exe

If you do decide to purchase, the serial number will convert the 'trial' to the 'registered' version.

Thank you
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