If you want to report a problem or would like to see a new feature in the next version of SyncTime, please write a comment on this page. Every suggestion is welcome!
Apps to increase your productivity
Apps to increase your productivity
If you want to report a problem or would like to see a new feature in the next version of SyncTime, please write a comment on this page. Every suggestion is welcome!
Hi There, does SyncTime support supports network volumes – ie: Backup from External Harddrive connected via USB to a NAS system with ethernet connection?
Every volume that you can browse in the Finder is supported automatically. The only feature that is not well supported for network volumes is background syncing.
Is a trial Version available ?
Published a trial version just now. You can download it from the homepage.
Hi,
Just setting up the tools and trying on USB device before full usage.
The tool is so obvious that maybe my question is ….
I have chosen „run the sync manually ( or automatically ) and ask for sync in background with „run immediately ( or 1 minute ) .
After the first sync , any modifications ( adding files , folders , files inside these folders ) do not appear on the destination folder.Seems the tools is not sync in background.
Thanks for your feedback,
OSX 10.11.6 & SyncTime 2.4.5(45)
jean DUBOIS
Currently some Terminal commands won’t trigger background syncing. Hopefully this will change in a future macOS release.
How do I sync the folder along with all the files in that folder? I tried to sync Documents, Music and Pictures and on the destination I have one big mess of all the different files listed alphabetically. Thanks.
SyncTime copies every file from the source folder to the destination folder. Since you selected the same destination folder for many source folders, they are now mixed up in the same location. If you want to keep them separate, you’ll have to create one folder Documents, one folder Downloads, and so on on the destination drive and select the respective one in each sync item’s settings. Or, as a shortcut, you may create one single sync item with your home folder as the source, then in the settings exclude the source itself and include all subfolders that you want to sync.
I am currently running Mountain Lion OSX and using Synctime. I am wanting to upgrade to El Capitan and want to be sure Synctime will work with El Capitan OSX.
Of course, the newer the better.
Hi, I’m very happy with your SyncTime tool. Very elegant functionality. prefer it above TimeMachine.
Just to let you know I report some apparent bugs:
– last sync time keeps saying ‚today for more than 24 hours‘, giving a misleading impression of recent backup activity
– the menu item ‚Once all syncs are completed‘ has two of its three options (sleep and shut down) always dimmed.
– The ‚Keep synchronized in the background‘ timing options seem reset themselves always to ‚immediately‘
These issues will be corrected in the next version:
– the last sync time will be updated on day changes
– the options „1 minute“ and „5 minutes“ work, it seems only the option „10 minutes“ is not saved currently.
Please refer to the Help section: how to enable actions after all syncs are completed.
Will this app sync with a NAS system? Bi-directional as well?
Yes, a NAS works as well, provided that you can mount (see and browse) it in the Finder. Bidirectional syncs work as well.
I set up a sync to make a copy of everything in my iCloud Drive (too important to trust just to Apple!). But only the ’non-default‘ folders are sync’d – e.g. Keynote and Numbers folders are not sync’d – how can I include these without setting up a separate sync for each folder?
thanks
Unfortunately this is not possible due to restrictions in macOS. A possible workaround is to exclude the source folder and include each individual iCloud Drive folder that you want to sync.
How can I clear or delete the error log?
The error log is deleted automatically when you run the sync again.
Would be nice to only sync selected files that I select without going through the filter.
To sync only a set of files, you can set the containing folder as the source, exclude that folder and include the desired files.
SyncTime is great but behaves unlike any other OS X app, once you click outside the app window, the app is still running but disappears from quick task manager of running apps, then you have to re-find and launch app to bring up the window again, why is that? is there a way for this not to happen?
You can open SyncTime again from the status bar menu. Since it’s a status bar app, it doesn’t show in the Force Quit window, but it appears in the Activity Monitor (which you can find in /Applications/Utilities).
After turning on remove files not on source and overwrite destination if source is newer, I am finding that files that should be moved are being marked for removal. I have found that if I open a command window and run „touch“ on these files in the source, then these files get copied to the destination. The „touch“ command changes the access date on the source file. It would be valuable to be able to „touch“ the source file by a pull down menu upon right clicking the file.
Files that are on one side only and have been modified before the last sync date are deleted by default. There will be a feature in the next version to move files from the remove list to the copy list.
After a Mac reboot, I have to sync all the automatic folders again, should it not remember?
The „Automatic“ option in the Advanced tab is only responsible for automatically starting a sync when SyncTime is launched, but source and destination will have to be compared each time.
Hi there !!
I’ve noticed that SyncTime takes all the available speed for itself ! If I have a good number of automatic-syncs to run on start-up (Yes, I have al ot…..), then the overall network „power“ goes to SyncTime until it ends the syncs…. So, waiting the Web-operations to become normal again, I have to wait a lot…
The verdict:
It would be …fine, if we can manage the available Web-speed, via SyncTime Preferences.
There will be an option to limit the bandwidth in the next update.
I keep getting this error:
Use ⌘E shortcut or contextual menu to display (Not synchornized yet.)
When I do the shortcut I get:
Error removing ‚/Volumes/Backup/JFP 2/.DocumentRevisions-V100‘: “.DocumentRevisions-V100” couldn’t be removed because you don’t have permission to access it.
and
Error removing ‚/Volumes/Backup/JFP 2/.Trashes‘: “.Trashes” couldn’t be removed because you don’t have permission to access it.
Any ideas?
These are directories created by the operating system which are „protected“. You can try excluding hidden files and leaving the option „Remove excluded files“ unchecked to skip them.
After updating to 2.2 (on Yosemite) my one-way sync to usb drives and phones are stopped working. The software hang up at the „comparing directories“ stage for hours. I had to restore the previous version from my time machine. Btw, the best sync app for simple tasks!
There is an issue in the Mac OS with exFAT filesystems which will be partially corrected in update 2.2.1.
The new 2.2 version does not allow us to sync back to our NAS unit… it reads that one way sync can not be done because the unit does not have a trash…
This was not an issue on previous version…. please correct, or otherwise direct us to how can we download the previous version once again
thanks
This bug will be resolved in update 2.2.1.
I setup a two way sync folder from my Mac (source) to my WD NAS drive (on my local network). It always works correctly the first time. But it seems that after a day or so it stops working. If I sync it manually, many files are not copied between the two folders. For example, if I add some files to the NAS and then do a sync, those files do not show up on my Mac. But if I remove the sync and start from scratch, it will work as expected. Also, when I delete a file from my mac, it doesn’t delete it from the NAS. If I have sync in the background, then it keeps adding the file back to my mac. Can you help me? I’m running OSX 10.9.5 and SyncTime Version 2.1.7 (22).
Please refer to the Help section to understand how two-way syncs work. Starting from version 2.2, the „date added“ attribute is used instead of the modification date, but the source/destination needs to be indexed by Spotlight in order for this attribute to be available.
With automatic two-way sync on a directory tempwork enabled, the following happened:
– Save an attachment (an image) from Apple Mail as tempwork/Image.jpg
– I can see in Terminal that the file briefly appears in tempwork, with the correct file size (458261)
– On computer 2, I can see that the new file gets synced to its tempwork directory, but it appears always with filesize 0
– Now apparently the file gets synced back to computer 1 automatically, in any way I suddenly see the file on computer 1 as tempwork/Image.jpg with filesize 0! Meaning the file has effectively been deleted, which is rather fatal.
I could reproduce this several times.
I also noticed that if I create a new file on computer 2 with ‚touch‘ in the terminal, and then edit some text with nano, the newly created file will appear directly on the other computer, but the changes made with nano will take about 30-60 seconds to show up. Is this intended?
This bug has been resolved in update 2.2.
Hallo
I have 2 questions:
1.) Is there a scheduler where I can choose to start the SyncTime every day or week?
2.) I can’t add the „sleep.scpt“ correctly because I can’t find the right folder to place it in the Library. Any tipp or help?
Thank you and brgds
Timo
There will be an option to run a sync item at specific times in one of the next versions.
Please refer to the Help section to learn how to put your Mac to sleep after all syncs have completed.
The SyncTime ver 2.1.7 changed the destination from an usb stick to the computer hard disk a couple of times. Wondered why the sync didn’t succeed and noticed this from the log file. I’m using Yosemite. Older versions and Mountain Lion used to behave well.
Very useful app anyway.
This is a bug that appears in the new Mac OS X Yosemite when you sync to the root of an external drive. Unfortunately there is no fix for this.
UPDATE: this bug will be fixed by the upcoming Mac OS X El Capitan.
SyncTime icon on menu bar does not show in Yosemite if dark menu bar is used
SyncTime version : 2.1.7 (22)
This will be fixed in the next version, which should be published in the next weeks.
I’m having a problem with SyncTime wanting to delete my .Spotlight-V100 directory from my USB key when I have the „Exclude hidden files“ and „Remove files not on source“ options selected (on OSX 10.8.5). I need to keep the .Spotlight directory around on my USB key to prevent reindexing on Yosemite when I plug in the stick on a different computer (Yosemite seems to store Spotlight exclusion info on the USB volume itself). SyncTime seems to be looking at some hidden files in spite of the „Exclude hidden files“ setting. How can I make SyncTime ignore the .Spotlight-V100 directory?
In update 2.1.7 the option „Remove files not on source“ doesn’t delete excluded files anymore. There is a new option „Remove excluded files“ which you can enable if you want to have the same behaviour as before, otherwise keep it unchecked if you want to preserve hidden files on the destination.
exactly what i was looking for
plus reasonable price
kindly add the ability to save sync settings
so if the app is deleted and re-installed we can get the settings for every sync back from a local file, iCloud Drive, or Dropbox
An Export feature is already planned for one of the next releases. You’ll be able to export your sync items to a file, and maybe also to iCloud.
Hi
I really like this app. But for some reason I can not exclude files by filter. If I type in for example .lrdata all files with this ending will be synced altough.
I first activate the checkbox, and of course, after typing in I confirm it by comma or return.
Could you give me some advise?
Thanx
In the latest version, some settings were only applied when pressing Enter, and not clicking on OK. This should be fixed now.
Very nice app, works fast en simple.
In the configuration, there is the feature to exclude files/directories. When I select a map that I don’t want to synchronize and I start the sync, the program automatically wants to delete the map on the destination. But I don’t want the map to delete, just don’t want him to sync.
I know I can manually remove the map from the delete list, but when I’m not looking good enough, there is the possibility I just click ok and the map will be deleted. Maybe there can be build a feature that prevents automatically deleting of excluded files/maps.
In the next version, the option to remove files not on source will be split into „Remove files not on source“ and „Remove excluded files“.
Good app but it fails in one aspect for my uses. When using the two-way sync, the list of files to be replaced (and to be copied) in the confirmation dialog does not indicate if the file will be copied from the left folder tree to the right folder tree or the opposite. It would be useful to know that information and simply adding a right pointing or left pointing arrow with each file would provide that information.
It might be the left-to-right arrow in the replace tab is indicating a direction but then it appears the app only updates the right folder tree, not the merge function claimed.
As reqeusted, in the current version there is now a floating row telling from where to where files are going to be copied. The bug with the merging has also been fixed.
Synctime stops with error when file name contains special characters or exceeds charter limit while copying to non mac NAS. Can you make an option to skip on errors but continue sync a simply just log the files that were skipped?
Good suggestion
In the next version SyncTime will try to continue after an error and log all errors.
When using auto sync, the date and time does not update, but the systems still syncs in the background
Nice app.
Thanks, this will be changed in the next version.
The latest two updates (2.1.3 and 2.1.4) appear to have broken the „Launch SyncTime at login“ functionality. The box is checked (which I can see after manually loading the program), but the icon does not appear in the menu bar, and the service/process does not self-initiate in the background.
It’s a great and simple app otherwise. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the bug report, I’ll correct it for the next update.
Simple and functional, but I would like the ability to start minimized when launching SyncTime at login. Can it be done?
Thanks!
SyncTime will start minimized at login in update 2.1.2.
Hi, I keep getting the following error – The file „..“ couldn’t be opened.
Is there something wrong with traversing the folder structure?
I have a couple of folders with .jpg images that I try to sync between my Mac and my NAS
Thanks for an otherwise great app!
This bug should be resolved with update 2.1.1.
A move option would be nice because the finder selects and copies files based on too many criteria and doesn’t give you many options especially if the transfer is interrupted for some reason, like if you crash. That is to say, if you compared the source and destination and then realized that a file was halted in the middle and is actually only half the file. It would then overwrite the 1/2 file with the good copy. The finder move option also doesn’t tell you where you left off if you hit the stop button. if I am ovine a directory of 40 folders, the finder won’t tell me where I left off.
Also, moving files from one folder to another on the same network drive is another instance where this might be handy.
A move mode has been added to SyncTime 2.0.
Hello,
Just bought your program, but when I launch it and click ‚add sync‘ I see 2 maps, the ’source‘ and ‚destination‘ folder. When I click on one of them finder opens, I click randomly a map the whole program just disappears. So I can’t use the program at al. Please help.
Gr. DJ
This bug has been resolved with update 1.1.7.
Hi,
I am on lion too and this keeps happening to me too.
Any chance you could add bidirectional synchronizing? So far I found SyncTime’s ability to be outstanding but It would also be nice to have a two-way method when synchronizing a network folder.
I’m working on bidirectional syncing right now. Please wait until it will be implemented in one of the next versions.
After the latest update, all my existing syncs are gone and I can not make any new ones.
Thanks
This bug will be resolved with the next update.
Great app! I also like to see an all black/gray icon in the menu bar. I also find it a bit inconvenient to reopen the „settings / sync overview“ window. (I now reopen the whole app) Would be great if there is a settings option in the dropdown list from the menu bar icon. Keep up the good work.
Of course! In the next version you’ll be able to reopen the main window from the status bar.
Great tool, works brilliantly automatically.
Id just love to see and option for a plain black menu bar icon.
Apart from that, i can’t flaw it,
Thanks
One of the next updates will have black and white status bar icons.
Hi,
Recently I have updated my Mac to OS Mavericks. After that I don’t see the progress bar during the syncs anymore in Usync. Also I don’t get a green bulb anymore when a sync was successful. Can you help to get those back?
Thanks!
Erik
This bug has been resolved with the newest version.
Please add the option to run SyncTime without the dock icon. I really want to use this app, but the dock icon is a deal breaker.
I submitted an update to be approved in the next week: SyncTime will run without a dock icon (only in the menubar).
Thank You for the 1.1.5 update. SyncTime is very convenient running from the menu bar. Thanks You for making this request a reality. SyncTime is an outstanding product. Looking forward to future additions to your catalog of apps.
Seriously wonderful app!! Love love love it. I’m an iOS developer and have thousands of PNGs and PSDs that I keep synced to a flash drive to supplement my time machine backups. Usync works wonderfully!
A nice addition would be the ability to resolve aliases or symbolic links (haven’t tested links yet) so in addition to my regular syncs, I could construct a folder of random aliases, and have the originals synced without having to sync all the different containing folders. That may fall outside of the scope of the app -either way – it’s still awesome for my use.
I’d give it 10 stars if the app store would let me – thanks!
Unfortunately resolving symbolic links isn’t possible due to the App Sandbox restrictions, so you’ll have to create separate sync items.
It would be really nice if you could exclude or allow a set of file extensions.
In a sync item’s settings, there is already a field to exclude specific words. Please enter your extension there (starting with a dot).
Great App, would love to see the option of it just sitting in the Menubar and not in the Dock, also a Sync timer, so that it would say sync folders every X minutes/hours etc.
The app will run from the status bar in the next update. I’ll see what I can do for the timer.
Hello, nice app. How about an option on sync so that the confirmation dialog of which files will be deleted/replaced/copied will not be displayed and that the sync will complete without this. Since the folder I’m syncing has thousands of items, the preliminary scan may take many minutes and I don’t want to have to come back and confirm the sync.
Also, sync is not a great word for what you app does. It really mirrors the source folder to the destination. Mirroring is what I was looking for anyway, but sync implies that the file transfer is bidirectional. I know it is not easy to change the name, but I’d put something about mirroring on the description.
An option to skip the confirmation dialog will be added to version 1.1.3. Bidirectional syncs will also be added in the future.
Hi, I installed SyncTime v1.1.1 on OS 10.7.5 but I can’t add any sync item. It just doesn’t let me add any folder as source or destination. After I select any folder, nothing happens, it still says „not selected yet“. Please fix it..
I already submitted an update which should be approved next week.
When I succesfully sync to mounted network folders and quit Usync, Usync says the folders aren’t synced yet when i startup Usync again.
This behavior is normal, the source has to be scanned again at application launch. If nothing changed after the last sync, the confirmation panel will not be shown.
Just installed it and ran it for the first time. I click on the „Add Sync“ image and the application aborts unexpectedly. I cannot get past this point to use the app.
[0x0-0xaf0af].org.desairem.SyncTime[11776]: objc[11776]: cannot form weak reference to instance (0x7fdbfcd35e00) of class SNSyncSettingsPanel
[0x0-0xaf0af].org.desairem.SyncTime[11776]): Job appears to have crashed: Illegal instruction: 4
This seems to be a bug in Mac OS X Lion which should be fixed with update 1.1.1.
Great tool, simple, fast and easy to use, thank you very much!
The only thing I cannot find, is the option to add one hidden file or folder on the exclude screen (using the + button) – the window does not show hidden files, even if I turn on hidden files in Finder. Would it be possible to show hidden files if showing of hidden files is enabled in Finder?
Hidden files will be shown in update 1.1.1.
Please make it compatible with OS X 10.7. I have an older MacBook that doesn’t support OS X 10.8
Lion should be supported in the next release!
Hi! Great tool, simple and reliable, thanks! I’d like to see an option for syncing in background for keeping folders in sync automatically. Would this be possible?
Background syncing will be supported in one of the next versions, which should be out in the next weeks.