If you want to report a problem or suggest a new feature for the next version of SyncTime, please write a comment on this page. Every feedback is welcome!
In case you’re writing about an issue you’ve encountered, please have a look at the Help topics first, which may already have an answer for you.
Your name and your comment can be made public so that other users can profit as well. Your email will only be used to message you privately. Your comment won’t be published right away, but every single one will be taken care of as soon as possible.
Good morning, first of all congratulations on the application!
Here’s my problem: I noticed that if I remove a file from the source folder, the copy is not mirrored but still shows that file.
E.g. the source folder contains the files: a.jpg, b.jpg, c.jpg. I make the backup and the program copies them all (as it should be).
If I remove the b.jpg file from the source folder and perform the backup in the folder in question again, the new backup will STILL have a.jpg, b.jpg, c.jpg
Did you enable the option “Remove files not on source” in the Destination tab of the sync settings?
Hi… so i have several scheduled syncs… but it appears they always come up with the dialog box when the get started where I have to confirm the actions shown in the top bar. how to not force me to OK every sync?
Please see Confirmation dialog.
I become synchro error ” error on sync metadata”
Could you please send me the complete error message you get? If you select the error in the Activity Log window, you get the detailed error description in the text area at the bottom. That would help me to better understand why you’re getting the error. In case you quit and restarted SyncTime in the meantime, please reproduce the error again and send me the text of the new error, since the detailed error message is lost when restarting the app. Here you find a screenshot of a sample detailed error and some common causes for sync errors: Sync errors.
Hi,
I’ve recently been trying SyncTime Lite after trying other synchronization apps and I have to admit that this one wins for me. For the future, could you add the possibility of recovering space on the computer where I don’t need some data and then being able to re-download it only when I need it? With the Dropbox app I right-clicked a folder in the finder and then chose “Online only” or “Offline.” Something like this would be great with SyncTime too.
I think that the ability to evict and redownload a file is specific to the cloud provider and not something that SyncTime would be able to do regardless of which cloud provider you’re using. Unless I misunderstood your suggestion, I’m afraid that’s not something I would be able to do. If you’re looking for a way to determine which files should be downloaded automatically and which ones shouldn’t, then looking for an option in your cloud provider’s app would be your best bet. If you cannot find it, have you tried contacting your cloud provider? Maybe they’re willing to add such an option.
I would like to use my NAS as a cloud provider and I am already using SyncTime to synchronize the Lightroom catalogs between the various computers in my studio and the NAS. What I need is to be able to keep the Lightroom catalog I’m working on my computer and archive all the other catalogs in the NAS so I can then download them when necessary
I think I now understand that you were simply suggesting to support your scenario in a similar way like Dropbox works. The mention of Dropbox confused me there and I thought you wanted SyncTime to interact with Dropbox, but you really just wanted to ask if SyncTime could in the future offer a similar feature where it would allow to selectively sync files from a backup (your NAS) to your Mac and at some point remove them again from the Mac while keeping them on the NAS.
I’m thinking of adding an additional sync type. We currently have “one-way sync”, “two-way sync” and “one-way move”. I propose to add a new one whose behaviour would be similar two a two-way sync, with the exception that excluded files are removed from the destination after syncing any changes from those files back to the source. This way you could exclude everything and add a filter that only includes files with a given Finder tag. When you change the tag in the Finder and sync afterwards, SyncTime would sync any changes between the Mac and the NAS, and if all is successful, it would proceed to delete the files from the Mac that are now excluded.
This is an awesome tool! Immediately bought it and it is very powerful in its simplicity and efficiency!
couple of questions and feedback:
1. performance: how many jobs could run parallel? if we ignore bandwidth of the network and storage drives, any limit you would suggest, to keep stable.
2. how can SyncTime pick up a job from another install, that did not get an export file imported, but just by comparing the directories? Just as a backup thought…
3. are there certain file attributes from a windows server share, that can’t be read or transferred?
4. is there a file count limit per sync job? Or in total?
5. is there a way to export log files? Or save out log files for each run?
6. could the view on the sync jobs be further adjusted via: last time synced, size, event: like errors, by name, running/inactive? The Groups are great, but to get an overview of certain states would be helpful.
Thank you very much and keep up the good work
1. I don’t have any suggestion about how many syncs should run in parallel. SyncTime should be able to handle as many parallel syncs as you want, but if it makes sense performance-wise depends on the Mac you’re using, the involved volumes and possibly other factors. Until now I didn’t bother figuring out the perfect number for parallelization, which would be quite difficult because of the given reasons.
2. I think what you’re wondering is how SyncTime can find out what’s changed between an existing source and destination, i.e. if the destination is not empty when running the first sync in SyncTime? For one-way syncs, files that exist on the source and the destination are overwritten on the destination according to the overwrite policy which you can set in the Destination tab of the sync settings. For two-way syncs, on the first sync, SyncTime adds all missing files to the other base and shows an error for files that exist on both but are different; on following syncs, SyncTime is then able to determine which file has been modified. I just extended the explanation about two-way syncs here: https://desairem.com/wordpress/synctime-sync-types/
3. I don’t know. I don’t have a Windows share to test this with. But if you run into any issue with any kind of volume, you’re welcome to send me any errors you might get and I will be happy to have a look at them. In case of doubt, before purchasing SyncTime, one should try SyncTime Lite (but I know you’ve already made the purchase).
4. There is no file count limit.
5. Currently there’s no way to export logs. If you tell me more about how you would expect such a feature to work and how you would want to use the exported logs, I’ll be happy to consider it. I just created a new help article dedicated to logs here: Logs. I’m possibly going to change the format used to save the logs in the near future, so don’t look at them too carefully for now.
6. Being able to sort the sync items is a great idea! I can imagine that sorting by name and last sync start would be useful.
Will SyncTime automatically wake up after being shut down to do scheduled backups or does one have to let it run all the time?
If you quit SyncTime, it won’t start again unless you start it manually. If you add it as a login item, it will be launched by macOS when starting up your Mac (see Launch at login). If you would like to keep it open without having it in the Dock, you can just have it in the status bar (see How can I hide the Dock icon or status item?).
Hello,
great software, I like it so far!
I have a one-way backup with backup strategy incremental. Is it possible to restore such a backup that does not contain hard links? I heard there might be problems working with hard links.
Thanks in advance!
If you restore a file or directory by copying the backup and pasting it in the Finder, then you will end up with independent file copies that you can edit freely (i.e. without hard links). I just added a short explanation on the help topic: Backup strategy.
Hi,
is there a way to minimize SincTime windows if we open it at macOS startup?
Thanks
Please see Launch at login. On macOS 12 or older you can activate a checkbox to hide the app at login. On macOS 13 or newer the app is hidden at login automatically.
I have enjoyed this backup solution and it’s the one i’ve always been looking for. My problem is when syncing to my NAS ( I use Synology diskstation). I have to login to it from finder under locations first, then run sync time, otherwise it will fail. I didn’t see a section for login credentials in the app so I’m not sure if their is another way.
I understand that you want your NAS to be connected automatically when a sync starts. I think this help article should help you: How do I add my server as a source/destination?
Perfect! Thank you!
Can’t update paid version of SyncTime. MacBook M2, MacOS Sonoma 14. Get error message below:
Unable to Download App
“SyncTime” could not be installed.
Please try again later.
I imagine that you get this error when trying to update SyncTime from within the App Store. Unfortunately the update process is outside of my control, since it’s all managed by macOS and Apple. The only thing I can suggest is to try to contact the Apple Support at http://support.apple.com, although in my experience they will tell you to first contact the app developer (which you just did), then try with another network and, if even that doesn’t help, reinstall macOS from scratch.
Been trying out SyncTime Lite.
I was looking for a way to sync my external hard drive with iCloud, both having 6TB by the way. At a certain point in de proces it stops as there is not enough space on my internal hard drive.
So is the internal hard drive absolutely necessary in this syncing proces?
Am I trying to use the wrong program considering what I am looking for?
Please do not consider my question a a negative remark about the program, maybe what I want is just not possible because of the way SyncTime Lite or Apple operates.
Many thanks in advance for helping out
When copying files to iCloud Drive, the Mac actually copies them to the internal drive and gradually uploads them to iCloud. Maybe activating the option “Optimise Mac Storage” in the iCloud System Settings helps? You can find a help article here: How can I sync iCloud Drive with another directory?
Hi – I’ve ben a long time SyncTime user and love. Thank you for the great support.
Wanted to let you know that when syncing items the “confirm”/”cancel” windows grow larger and larger each time I click one of those buttons. I know this happened once before, and an update was issued to fix it. Just wanted to let you know that it’s happening again in case you weren’t aware. Thanks again for the great program.
It seems that macOS 14 has reintroduced this issue. I will do my best to fix it.
Hallo, ich bekomme folgende Fehlermeldung:
“Fehler beim Setzen der Metadaten für /Volumes/DATEN/01.10.2023
Das Setzen des benutzerdefinierten Datei-Symbols ist fehlgeschlagen.”
Was kann ich tun?
Could it be that you’re syncing to a volume that doesn’t support custom directory icons? You can find a help topic here: How do I solve the error “Couldn’t set the custom file icon”?
Hello,
Is there an option to login to network storage device as destination?
Thank you.
Do you mean that you would like to connect automatically to the destination drive when you start a sync? In this case, this help article should help: How do I add my server as a source/destination?
Hello Sync Time,
Nice Program; very good described and it is funktioning
nicely so far.
My Question: After i’ve purchased the app SyncTime,
is it still necessary to keep the SyncTime Lite-Version or can I
delete it from app-folder?
Thanks for answer.
Greetings
Vizi
You can delete SyncTime Lite if you’ve purchased SyncTime.
Hey,
love syntime – great job! I am syncing actually all my data from my laptop
to a cloud service. For each directory I created a sync. In order not to have them
run all the same time (otherwise my cloud slows down massively) I have made them
dependent on eachother – so one sync starts when the other has finished. But some time
a sync shows an error and the next sync won´t start. Is there a solution to that?
Thanks
Andi
(the answering email is a forwarding service to avoid spam -thanks for your reply)
Currently there’s no way to keep dependencies from going on when a previous sync has errors. What kind of errors do you get? Are they not something you would be able to fix permanently?
Alternatively, if you’re syncing several folders with the same parent directory, you could “merge” them into a single sync item with the parent directory as the source, then exclude it, and include only the subdirectories that you had selected previously as the different sources. There is a note at the bottom of this help article which explains just that: Filters.
Hello,
I am using SyncTime Version 4.8 (148) and I noticed the status bar icon is changing from black to white, when I click on it (on daytime). I made a short video about it but cannot upload it here. All the other status bar icons doesn’t change their color. Maybe the SyncTime icon also should not change?
Thanks for your time and also thank you for this great app.
Kind regards.
Otto
You’re right, it seems that status bar icons don’t invert their colors anymore. That wasn’t always the case though. But I’ll change this in the next update to reflect the other system icons’ behaviour.
Hi,
as of today I cannot create new sync elements with my internal drive as source (using time capsules as destination). Any folder I try to select from my drive is listed as “not available”. Copying from time capsule to time capsule is no problem, only using the internal drive as a source.
That seems to be an issue which happens for some users since the newest update but which I cannot reproduce on my Mac. I just sent an update to Apple that should fix it, it should be available very soon.
Thanks, great support!
After the latest Synctime update several of my syncs which point to NAS devices are reporting “base unavailable”. In the log no specific bases are listed as being unavailable. The NAS data does show up in Finder. I have restarted all devices. These syncs will no longer run until they see the bases they’re looking for. I have tried reconfiguring one of them but that didn’t help.
This should now also be fixed with the newest update.
Hi, I notice an alert on version 4.8 about sync problem when starting up but it disappeared. I now can’t make dropbox as one of my sources and it would find it previously and sync just a couple of weeks ago.
Help
The update alert is not about sync problems, but about the changed file extension for exported sync items. If you’re having any issue with syncing or setting up sync items, then that’s unrelated to the alert. You say that SyncTime would find your Dropbox folder previously. Can you find the Dropbox folder in the Finder? If you can’t see it in the Finder, then you won’t be able to select it in SyncTime either.