Category: SyncTime Help

  • How can I hide the Dock icon or status item?

    Dock icon The Dock icon can be toggled in the status item menu by selecting Show Dock icon. When hiding the Dock icon, SyncTime might still appear for some time in the rightmost part of the Dock where the most recently used apps are. To remove it from there immediately, you can drag and drop…

  • Why is the app interface using [this language] instead of [other language]?

    macOS launches an app in the first of your preferred languages that is also supported by the app, e.g. if German is placed higher in the list than English, the app will be launched in German. You can change this in System Settings, under General > Language & Region. At the top you can change…

  • Why do some files seem to change without apparent reason?

    If you’re unsure why a file is listed in the confirmation dialog, either double-click the file or open select Get Info from the context menu, and compare the file attributes between source and destination. Depending on the overwrite policy, the modification date or size should be different. For additional help, see Sync confirmation dialog. Old…

  • Why do I get “Error while copying X to Y. File exists”?

    Case sensitivity is a property of volumes. On case-sensitive volumes, it is allowed for two filenames to differ only in the case of a letter, whereas on case-insensitive volumes, it is not allowed. For example, on case-sensitive volumes there could be two files named file.txt and File.txt, whereas on case insensitive volumes only one of…

  • What are files with the ._ prefix?

    Files starting with ._ are created by macOS when copying a file that has extended attributes to a volume that doesn’t support them. This special file is used to save the extended attributes that would otherwise be lost. An example of a volume format that doesn’t support extended attributes is FAT32. These files are hidden…

  • Source, destination, base

    By default, a sync item consists of two bases: a source and a destination. When changing the sync type to two-way sync, there is no concept of source and destination anymore, since every base is source and destination at the same time. All bases need to have the same type: they all need to be…

  • Schedules

    Schedules allow sync items and sync groups to run automatically at specified dates and times or when the source and destination volumes become available. For sync items, a schedule allows to select which action to run: For information about the last two actions, see Verify backups. To view and modify schedules, click the button with…

  • Force quit

    By default, SyncTime appears both in the Dock and as a Menu Bar icon. Only apps that appear in the Dock are listed in the Force Quit window ( > Force Quit). If you disabled the option to show SyncTime in the Dock, in order to force quit it:

  • Launch at login

    In macOS, you can select any app to be automatically launched at login. On macOS 13 or newer, when launched at login, SyncTime will automatically hide its windows.

  • Backup strategy

    The backup strategy defines if and how overwritten and removed files can be recovered. The backup strategy can be changed in the Backup tab of the sync item settings. Note: when the option Keep synced in background is enabled, while applying changes in background, removed and overwritten files are not backed up to avoid filling…