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Unfortunately crashes constantly.
I tested the free Sync Time Lite and was very happy with it, so today I decided to buy the full version. But every time I want to go to “Ziele”/Objectives the App crashes. I don’t know why. I’m using a M1 MacBook Air with Mac OS 12.6.
I tried to go back to SyncTime lite, but now this one crashes too.
I’m unhappy, because I paid 10 € and now it crashes. Please try to fix this
Apple is currently reviewing the update that fixes this issue. You should be able to update soon: the review process usually lasts only a few hours. Thank you for reporting this and sorry for the inconvenience.
I’d like to request the ability to rename files before copying to the destination. For example, the ability to replace one character with another in the file name like replacing “/” with “-“. My use case is syncing to a cloud-synced folder that has file name limitations not inherent to the OS. Thanks!
Being able to map a filename on the source to a filename on the destination is an interesting use case. At this moment, I cannot promise anything yet and I will need some weeks to see if and how such a feature could be implemented. I imagine that filename mapping would mostly make sense for one-way syncs, because when syncing back in a two-way sync there could be filename clashes when trying to invert the filename mapping.
Just bought your app and liking it so far!
There are two things that I’d like so suggest:
1. if you have a job with multiple origins and destinations, let the user decide what origin should be synced to what destination. Here is a scenario to describe it:
– origins: documents folder in dirA + pictures folder in dirA
– destinations: documents folder in dirB + pictures folder in dirB
Currently, it would do a cross-sync meaning that the union of the origin folder data need to be inside each destination.
What I want is to decide what folder gets synced where. Here, it would be to sync each origin folder with its equivalent folder in dirB.
2. Add a new view “Grouped Jobs” and show all Jobs that are in one group as a single Job
PS: The second request would make it possible to overcome the first request (two separate jobs linked to one group shown as one job in group view)
If you have the same folder structure on the source and the destination, e.g. dirA/Documents and dirA/Pictures on the source, and dirB/Documents and dirB/Pictures on the destination, then instead of selecting Documents and Pictures on the source as two different sources and on the destination as two different destinations, you could select the parent directory on the source as the single source and the parent directory on the destination as the single destination. If those parent directories contain other subfiles that you don’t want to include in the sync, you can add the source directory itself as an excluded file, and Documents and Pictures as included files, and you’ll have those two subdirectories synced between source and destination. This is also mentioned on this help topic about multiple sources and destination and the linked topic about Filters: Multiple sources, destinations or bases.
I am trying the free version. It is not clear to me how you specify a tag filter. Specifically, I want to include only files that have a purple tag. When I click on the “+” and select tag, I do not know where to put “Purple”. I have tried varies ways, but none seem to work. Please advice.
After adding clicking on + and selecting Tag, you can double click on the token that was added to the filter text field and edit the value, then press Enter to confirm. If in doubt, this is also explained in the help popover that you can open by clicking on the ? button beside the filter text field.
prob dumb question but do the rest of the files copy over other than the errors when an error occurs (or multiple) on a 1-way sync?
When a sync error happens that doesn’t prevent the remaining files to be synced, the sync will continue. This is mentioned briefly in this help topic: Sync errors.
Hey there! SyncTime is fantastic but I’m encountering a bug that’s really been troublesome.
Bug: If one sets-up a sync that’s a “One-way move”, all the files/folders copy over from the source to the destination as intended, but while the files within the source are removed, all the folders remain. Or to put it another way, if one performs a “One-way Move,” the source ends up still retaining the folders (but without any files within them; empty).
I’ve replicated it in on two different Macs, using a variety of different parameters, leading me to conclude it’s a bug. It would be great if you could fix this soon if possible! I just bought SyncTime and need to schedule some Move sync items right away
Empty source directories were not removed in a one-way move. This is fixed in the newest update.
V4.6. I’ve changed the frequency of one of the tasks from manual to every day but the changes aren’t applied, it still shows “next sync: manual” and in the settings of the task it shows every day. I tried restarting but that didn’t work.
If the sync schedule remains manual, then you probably have the sync item deactivated. If you add the checkbox again in the main window, it should be updated to the selected sync schedule. You can also read a short explanation by clicking the ? button beside the schedule popup button.
How can you stop SyncTime from Seeing Zero Bytes Files in the Overwrite Section? I have tried adding an expression for filer exclude files smaller than 1 byte but doesn’t seems to work…
If you only see directories with a Zero KB size and a dot beside it, it means that there are no actual files to be synced, but only the modification dates of the directories have changed (please see Confirmation dialog). It may be that you have the same situation as described in Why do some files seem to change on each sync?. Otherwise, the first step in understanding where the problem might be is checking what the modification date of the directories on the destination are when they are newly created by SyncTime (i.e. they were listed in the Add tab of the confirmation dialog) and also when they are updated (i.e. they were listed in the Overwrite tab of the confirmation dialog) and comparing them with the modification date of the source directory.
Hi, I’m on a MacBook Pro running Ventura 13.4. running a oneway sync to a dropbox account with 5 TB and plenty of unused space. I’m getting the error messages:
Base “Finance Backup Folder” is full
Base /users/myname/Library/CloudStorage/mydropbox/Backup Folder needs 23.67 GB of additional free space to complete the sync
Any insights on where the problem might be? I’ve been using the SyncTime product for years now and this is the first issue I’ve been unable to solve.
Thank you.
This was indeed a problem with cloud services like Dropbox or iCloud that save files in a local directory that can be automatically deleted again when they have finished uploading. This is now fixed with the newest update which shows a warning if the volume is almost full, but doesn’t stop the sync anymore.
Hello,
I always use Time Machine to backup my files from Mac. But I would like to have a second copy of my home directory to another drive (external HDD-Drive) which should be able to open with an windows computer in case of emergancy. This backup should also be password protected/ encrypted. Is this possible with SyncTime? Thank you!
I don’t have much experience with Windows, so I can’t say for sure what formats are supported by both macOS and Windows and what not. SyncTime itself doesn’t do any encryption or password protection at the moment. If you want your backups to be protected, I would suggest to use an encrypted volume (which you can create in the Disk Utility app), but again, I don’t have any first-hand experience with using any of those encrypted volumes on Windows. Regarding SyncTime, if you’re unsure about any of its features, you can always download and use SyncTime Lite for free, which allows you to use all its features, but will not save any settings when you close the app.
Hello can I buy Synctime outside the MacApp Store? Thanks
At the moment it’s only possible to download SyncTime from the App Store. I would like to offer an alternative way, but couldn’t find it yet. If there’s a particular reason why you cannot or don’t want to download it from the App Store, I would be happy to hear it.
I am loving SyncTime. Thank you. A quick question/request: is it possible to add KIND to the filter so I can only move the docs or xlxs or mp4 files into a back up? Can the suffices in example files, tom.xlsx or tom.mp4 or tom.docx be a part of the filename to be chosen? Would you show me? It didn’t work fo rme. Thank you.
I understand that you want to selectively sync files with a given extension. I think this help topic should help you: How can I only sync files with a given extension?
How do I set this up so I don’t need to manually confirm changes after a sync? Looking to make this fully automatic without the need to “confirm” changes. Thanks!
Have you had a look at the Advanced settings? There you will find an option “Skip confirmation dialog” which sounds like is what you are looking for.
Hello. I have a WD My Cloud Home (MCH) and am seeking a solution now that WD Discovery is being phased out. The actions I use the MCH is two: (a) remote access of files, and (b) desktop sync. The former will apparently continue to work through the existing iOS WD apps. However, the latter will not.
Does your SyncTime solution allow for desktop sync? More specifically, if a file (located in a folder which has been preselected for syncing) is changed on my Mac, will the modified file be synced with the MCH automatically without creating a “job” with SyncTime?
It all depends on what you mean with “will be synced automatically”. SyncTime can monitor local files on your Mac for changes in real time, and you could also run a sync manually that will compare files by their modification date. You’re welcome to try out the free SyncTime Lite, which has all the features of SyncTime except that it won’t save and load the settings when you quit the app.
I feel like I’m seeing incorrect behavior with SyncTime Lite with the following combination of Destination settings when the destination is a .sparseimage diskimage. No files are actually moved to the trash from what I can tell.
Sync type: one way sync
Never overwrite
Remove files not on source
Move old files to the trash
I could reproduce the issue with a read/write dmg volume, and then tried to move a file to the trash from the Finder, and suddenly all files previously moved to the trash with SyncTime appeared there as well. After that, files moved to the trash with SyncTime appeared immediately. When emptying the trash and rebooting the Mac, the issue happened again. So it seems that it only happens until you manipulate the trash from the Finder. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a workaround I could implement to make it work, but I submitted a report to Apple and they will hopefully solve this issue soon.
Can I purchase your app independently of the apple app store? I would like to purchase a few copies to run on a few work Macs but don’t want them tied to an apple ID.
At the moment, the only way to purchase my apps is through the App Store. I would love to offer an alternative download option, but I have yet to find a licensing system that can be easily integrated into macOS apps and is not bound to a particular vendor. Until that moment, the most convenient way for me to publish my apps, and for users to download and keep them updated, is through the App Store.
Hi I just buyed SyncTime and it seems to work pretty well.
I worked with sync folders pro before but that one constantly froze the computer and forced a restart.
My only problem with SyncTime is its transfer limit of 40MegaByte/Second.
When I’m copying with finder I have 125MB/s
Copying with SyncFoldersPro gets me 80MB/s
Do you have a clue why it’s limited?
During my own tests, I noticed that SyncTime is about 20% slower than the Terminal cp command (I timed it by running “time cp source destination”). Since SyncTime uses the macOS filecopy function, I reported this to Apple. Surprisingly they got back to me writing that in the upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma this issue should be fixed. After the many problems I had installing macOS 14 on a test system, I have the impression that indeed SyncTime and cp should be about the same now. It would be great if you have a chance to install macOS 14 when it comes out at the end of September and test again, so that I can see if there’s still anything I can do to speed SyncTime up.
Is there a way to add the same schedule to multiple sync items instead setting each individually? If not, this would be a welcome addition.
Right now the fastest way to copy sync schedules would be to duplicate the sync item. I’ve been told in the past that it would be desirable to have a faster way of setting sync schedules, so I guess this is what was meant back then: to be able to copy them from one sync item to another. I will see what I can do and possibly make some changes in one of the next updates.
Ich blende meine Suffix grundsätzlich aus im Finder. Sobald eine Sicherung gestartet wird, erhalte ich immer die Fehlermeldung “Fehler beim Setzen der Metadaten…”
Die Meldung kommt aber pro Datei nur einmal, wenn ich bei der besagten Datei den Suffix ausblende. Eine anschließende Sicherung läuft dann wieder ganz normal.
Trotzdem wäre es schön, wenn die Meldung nicht mehr erscheinen würde, da es sich um keinen Fehler handelt.
Danke für ein kurzes Feedback.
Grüße aus München
Björn
It seems that in your case you have some files with yourself as the owner but no group. The problem right now is that SyncTime first creates a new directory with default permissions (which usually include a group named “staff”) and later tries to copy the permissions of the source directory, which doesn’t include “staff” anymore, but removing it is not allowed. I will change it so that the permissions are set immediately at creation time, causing no error.
When SyncTime copies a newly created source folder to a destination it generates an “Error setting metadata for” followed by the folder name. The folder is created and its files are copied every time so the error doesn’t appear to actually create a problem. I have a MacBook Pro running the latest macOS and I am copying to a folder named SyncTime on an NAS. Other than this error, the software is great.
It seems that when setting file permissions is not supported on a drive, some drives show an error and others don’t. The update that just got approved on the App Store should now fix this inconsistency and not attempt to set file permissions if it’s not supported.