By default, tracking of moved files is disabled. (Moved files include renamed files as well.) You can enable the corresponding option in the Advanced tab of the sync settings.
When you move a file and this option is disabled, SyncTime will see the old file as removed and the new one as added, so if the file contents did not change, the entire file will be copied again. (If the option “Remove files not on source” is disabled, the file with the old name is preserved along the file with the new name.) This is a minor inconvenience if you rarely move files, since tracking moved files requires the creation of snapshots that occupy additional space (see below).
When tracking moved and renamed files, SyncTime creates a snapshot of the source by storing each file’s path and identifier. Since the identifier of a file always remains the same, a renamed file can be matched to its previous location when the two identifiers are equal. When enabling this option, the following sync will store the snapshot. Only starting from the sync after that will moved and renamed files be effectively tracked.
By default, old logs are automatically deleted after 7 days. You can change the time interval in the Activity Logs window, by clicking on the three dots toolbar button and selecting Maximum log age.
In order to reduce the space occupied on disk and to speed up the loading time, the logs are saved in a binary XML format which is not user-readable. This file can be converted to a plain XML file. The following Terminal command creates the converted log file on the Desktop:
When you buy an app on the App Store, you provide your payment details to Apple, which ultimately processes the transaction and offers the app stored on their servers. I don’t have access to your payment details nor to your email or contact information, so I cannot offer a refund. But Apple can.
Unfortunately I don’t have any control over the app download and update process. The App Store is operated by Apple and the downloaded or updated apps are stored on Apple servers.
A possible workaround is to restart your Mac and try the download or update again.
If you’re trying to update, a possible workaround is to move the app to the bin and then download it again from the App Store.
If you’re unable to solve the issue, you should try to contact the Apple Support. They might ask you to contact the app developer first (that’s what they usually do when a third-party app is involved); if they do, you can link to this page and emphasize that since the update is managed by the App Store and the App Store is an Apple app, only Apple can help.
One-way syncs allow you to specify file modifiers that can change how a file is copied to the destination. Each file modifier is applied to all copied files by default, but can be adjusted individually to match a subset of the copied files.
Add Tag
Adding a Finder tag allows to recognize all files copied during a sync, assuming that the tag wasn’t set before.
Compress
Compressing big or rarely needed files allows to save space, but requires expanding them before using them again.
Create alias
Creating an alias pointing back to the source file allows to save space of rarely needed files, but renders the alias useless if the source file is deleted or disconnected.
Rename
Renaming files allows to change or delete characters that are not supported on the destination volume.
You can choose to find and replace text in a file name by selecting one of two operations: Exact match or Regular expression.
SyncTime and SyncTime Lite are independent apps, so they can practically coexist. Still, when you purchase SyncTime, you won’t need SyncTime Lite anymore.
You can transfer the settings of the sync items created in SyncTime Lite to SyncTime. Just keep in mind that the only limitation of SyncTime Lite is that it doesn’t save its own settings when the app is closed, so if you want to transfer them to SyncTime, do so before closing SyncTime Lite.
Make sure the syncs are up to date by selecting them all in SyncTime Lite with Command-A, then clicking on the Play button in the toolbar. If necessary, wait until all the syncs complete.
Export the sync items from SyncTime Lite, e.g. by selecting them all, then right-clicking them and selecting “Export selected sync items” from the context menu.
In the Save panel, select the directory where the save file should be created and click Save.
Import the sync items in SyncTime, e.g. by right-clicking the main SyncTime window and selecting “Import sync items” from the context menu.
In the Open panel, select the save file created in step 2 and click Open.
After the sync items have been imported, you can delete the save file or keep it as a backup copy. The imported sync items are not linked to the save file.
Custom directory icons can be set in the Finder by opening the Info panel (from the main menu View > Get Info, or by pressing Command-I) and dragging an image onto the icon on the top left of the Info panel. A custom icon can be removed again by clicking it in the Info panel and pressing the Delete key.
A custom directory icon is saved inside the directory itself as a hidden file named “Icon\r”, where “\r” stands for the carriage return character and is displayed in the Finder as a “?” character.
Hint: you can toggle the display of hidden files in the Finder with the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-.
Even if custom file icons are hidden in the Finder, simply excluding hidden files in SyncTime will not exclude custom directory icons from a sync. If you want to exclude custom directory icons, you can add a Filename filter with the text “Icon”. Don’t use the text “Icon?” as seen in the Finder because, as mentioned, the ? character is only displayed by the Finder and not a part of the icon file name; instead, the “Icon” text will match any filename that contains that word, including “Icon\r”.
If you want to create a copy of the sync items and their settings, you can export them from the File menu or the main window context menu (which you can open with a right-click). This is the preferred way of saving the sync settings when you are planning to use SyncTime on a new Mac, knowing that the syncs from the old Mac are up to date and the internal snapshots used by SyncTime to track the state (if any) can be automatically recreated with the first sync on the new Mac.
What to backup
For some configurations, SyncTime saves snapshots of the sync bases which allow to determine reliably what has changed between syncs. Snapshots are created for sync items of type two-way, if the option to track moved files is enabled, or if a Create Alias file modifier is enabled. Sync items that don’t include any of these options, such as one-way syncs that don’t track moved files, can always operate on the current state of the synced files.
By default, snapshots are saved along with the activity logs in
~/Library/Containers/org.desairem.uSync/Data/Library/Application Support
where ~ is your user directory. The directory named org.desairem.uSync is displayed by the Finder as SyncTime on recent versions of macOS.
For sync items with a Create Alias file modifier, the snapshots are saved instead in the app group directory that can also be accessed by the Finder Sync extension (sandboxed apps, like all App Store apps, can only share data between predefined apps without the user’s permission by using the app group directory):
~/Library/Group Containers/8L4NN3ZTVN.org.desairem.SyncTime/Library/Application Support
The app preferences, including the sync settings, are saved in (according to macOS standards)
If you created any custom user scripts differing from the ones available by default in SyncTime, you may want to back them up as well. They are required by macOS to be located in a dedicated directory:
~/Library/Application Scripts/org.desairem.uSync
Creating a backup
To back up the files listed above, create a sync item with ~/Library as the source, then, to exclude everything except the important files, add the source itself as an explicitly excluded file and the other files as included. Please refer to Filters for more information about this technique.
Restoring a backup
Copy the directories and files mentioned above from the backup location back to your Mac, replacing any existing files. After replacing the app preferences file, you need to restart your Mac or run the following Terminal command:
defaults read org.desairem.uSync
Note: manually replacing the snapshot files and importing previously exported sync items by using the Import command in SyncTime (as opposed to replacing the app preferences file) won’t work, as the IDs of the imported sync items will not be the same as the ones referenced in the snapshots.
Custom directory icons can be set in the Finder by opening the Info panel (from the main menu View > Get Info, or by pressing Command-I) and dragging an image onto the icon on the top left of the Info panel. A custom icon can be removed again by clicking it in the Info panel and pressing the Delete key.
Check for custom file icons
If you’re getting the error “Couldn’t set the custom file icon” but you cannot see a custom icon set in the Finder, you can check if there is a custom icon with the following steps:
Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
Type “ls -a ” (with a trailing whitespace), then drag the directory mentioned in the error message into the Finder window. Press Enter. This command lists all contents of the dragged directory, including hidden files. A custom directory icon is saved inside the directory itself as a hidden file named “Icon\r”, where “\r” stands for the carriage return character and is displayed in the Finder as a “?” character.
Delete custom file icons
If you’re syncing a directory with a volume that doesn’t support custom icons, you can find and optionally delete all the custom icons with the following steps:
Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
Type “cd ” (with a trailing whitespace), then drag the root directory into the Finder window. Press Enter. This command makes the dragged directory the current directory in the Terminal.
Copy and paste the command find . -name "Icon?" -type f into the Terminal window and press Enter. This command lists all files with the name “Icon”, followed by any other character. In the find command, ? matches any character, which we use to replace the “\r” character.
Make sure that no unwanted file is listed.
Copy and paste the command find . -name "Icon?" -type f -delete into the Terminal window and press Enter. This command deletes all files matched by the previous query.
If the sync schedule of a sync item is set to a time when the Mac is asleep, macOS automatically delays the sync until the Mac wakes up again.
There might be instances where you want a sync to run while you’re not using your Mac, such as if a sync is expected to copy many files that should be available on the next morning. In this case, the only option is to keep your Mac awake until the sync has finished.
In the System Settings, under Lock Screen, you can control when the Screen Saver starts and when the display is turned off after a period of inactivity.
When the Screen Saver starts, the Mac is still awake and syncs can still run. When the display is turned off, the Mac might still remain awake for some time, but can go to sleep as soon as no process prevents it from doing so. To actively prevent automatic sleep when the display is turned off and the Mac is connected to the power adapter, in the System Settings, under Displays, click on Advanced (at the bottom) and enable the option “Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off”.
