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SyncTime Contact

If you want to report a problem or suggest a new feature, please write a comment on this page. Every feedback is welcome!

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Kommentare

841 responses to “SyncTime Contact”

  1. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    In the current SyncTime (5.0.1), it does not seem that I can run multiple syncs simultaneously. I used to be able to do that? Is it still possible to run several syncs at the same time, and if so can someone explain how?

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      You can still run multiple sync items simultaneously. Just click on the Play button for each one, or select them all, then right-click them to open the context menu and select Sync (or in the main menu select File > Sync).

      Reply
  2. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Hello! I’m Alex, a university student

    I wanted to ask you if you have discounts for students of your application Synctime

    Thank you very much!

    Alex

    Universidad de Murcia

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      At this very moment, I’m unable to offer any type of discount. The App Store doesn’t have such a feature.

      I’m just trying to set up a payment method for users who don’t want to go through the App Store, and I might be able to offer a discount there. It may take from a few days to a few weeks before I can offer SyncTime directly on the website.

      Reply
  3. Robert Kemp Avatar
    Robert Kemp

    Mac Sequoia 15.3.1 on a M1 Max Studo
    One of my syncs takes a OneDrive directory and does a one-way sync to 3 different NAS destinations. I would like to activate backup strategy “Move old files to…” but no matter where I place the backup directory it’s deemed invalid. The meaning of the resulting error message is not sinking in to me.
    Should I not even be trying this due to having 3 destinations?

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      The error message tells you that the backup directory has to be on the same volume as the destination directory, and it also shows you the two paths. They both have to be on the same volume.

      Reply
  4. Robert Kemp Avatar
    Robert Kemp

    With version 5, I sorely miss the label “Keeping synced in background” and I miss the icon at the top that triggers the running of all syncs. Can we have them back?

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Instead of the label “Keeping synced in background” now there is a different status icon on the right, and the Play button on the left changes to a Stop button as well.

      Regarding the button to trigger all syncs: you can create a new sync group in the sidebar and add all sync items to it. When you select the sync group, there is a button Sync that runs all the sync items.

      Reply
  5. Mark D. Hall Avatar
    Mark D. Hall

    Just downloaded the latest version 5.0, and it seems the COMMAND COMMA option to bring up the sync settings isn’t doing anything. Rebooted and tried again but nothing. Using an M1 Mac with Sequoia 15.3.1.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Thanks for reporting the issue with the Sync Settings menu item. I failed to notice it as I’m used to opening the sync settings with a double click. I’ll fix it with the next update.

      Reply
      1. Mark D. Hall Avatar
        Mark D. Hall

        Thank you so much – I didn’t even know you could double click the sync item to bring up the properties. That actually seems faster than the COMMAND COMMA option. Thanks again!

        Reply
        1. admin Avatar
          admin

          I’m glad to hear that you could learn something new 😉 In the meantime, the update has been published so you can use Command-, again.

          Reply
  6. Mark D. Hall Avatar
    Mark D. Hall

    I love the look of the new interface and all the changes, but I can’t seem to find the option to “skip” syncing of certain sync items that are in groups. Specifically, I sometimes have a bunch of “temporary files” in my download folder that I don’t want to back up, and in the past I would uncheck the box for that sync item, and they wouldn’t sync with the rest of the group. I don’t see a way to do that now. Is it still possible? If not, do you have a suggestion on how to temporarily skip backing up certain sync items? Thanks!

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      That’s right, currently there’s no way to temporarily skip certain sync items. In particular, I removed the checkbox that used to activate or deactivate each sync item because it was a source of confusion for many users. I added it a long time ago, never used it personally, and didn’t see an obvious reason to keep it. It doesn’t have to be a permanent change though, as I appreciate feedback at any point in time. By sharing details about your use cases you can help me understand different scenarios and make changes to suit them better.

      Reply
      1. Mark D. Hall Avatar
        Mark D. Hall

        Thank you for the quick reply. I found an easy workaround. I just created another group that has the sync items that I don’t always want to back up, and I just don’t run it if I don’t want to back up those files. Works great and actually keeps my main backup group cleaner because it’s not full of items that I only back up half the time.

        Reply
        1. admin Avatar
          admin

          It sounds like you found a solution that works better than your previous setup, which sounds great! I’m thinking of adding an option to temporarily deactivate sync items in a group which could solve this issue as well, but if you have many sync items perhaps having two separate sync groups really is the better solution.

          Reply
  7. Richard Burns Avatar
    Richard Burns

    Just wanted to report a bug in the latest SyncTime Update that added the Sidebar. When I try to reorder the sidebar Group list by moving a group title up or down the list, nothing happens. If, however, I move a group title and hold it in the desired place in the list, the app immediately crashes. When I reopen the app, the group is now in the position I was trying to move it to in the first place

    I am using a M4 MacBook Pro Max and OS 18.3.1

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      You’re right, reordering sync groups doesn’t work correctly and often causes a crash. I will publish a fix very soon.

      Reply
  8. Oliver Avatar
    Oliver

    Hi, you wrote:
    Backup browser
    You can open the backup browser by opening the File menu or the main window context menu, then selecting Browse Backups.

    How can Find this?
    Im running Sequoia

    Danke

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      When you enable the backup strategy “Incremental, link unchanged files”, you can open the backup browser from the File menu in SyncTime (not the Finder). I added this small detail to the help page.

      Reply
  9. Brent Walker Avatar
    Brent Walker

    I keep getting the message ‘file cannot be opened’ when trying to set the source and destination. I am clicking on hard drives that have worked in the past.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      This sounds like a known macOS issue that was discussed in the Apple Developer forums: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764435?answerId=806097022#806097022

      It is an issue introduced with macOS 15.0, 14.7.1 and I believe 13.7.1. According to the Apple engineer, it should be fixed in macOS 15.2, 14.7.3 and 13.7.3.

      Reply
  10. Roman Avatar
    Roman

    Hi, The initial backup worked fine, without errors. On the subsequent backups, I’m getting this error and the sync stops, preventing other files from being backed up.
    Error linking /Volumes/MacExt4TB/Backups/MacExt/2025-01-23T12-59-55-0600/Dropbox/Travel/filename.k2p to /Volumes/MacExt4TB/Backups/MacExt/2025-01-26T16-55-12-0600.inprogresslink/Dropbox/Travel/filename.k2p
    “filename.k2p” couldn’t be linked because you don’t have permission to access “Travel”.
    NSCocoaErrorDomain 513

    My username has R/W permissions to the file and directory, so this is strange.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      I did some tests and I noticed that in fact this error happens when you have locked files and the backup strategy “Progressive, link unchanged files”. I will publish an update soon that will consider the option “Temporarily unlock locked files before overwriting/removing them” when linking to the previous backup.

      Reply
  11. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    The product page says this app can be controlled with Shortcuts app. However, I don’t see any SyncTime component in Shortcuts. Is this info outdated? It looks like the only way to control SyncTime programmatically is to use AppleScript, correct?

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Unfortunately, SyncTime only supports Shortcuts integration starting from macOS 13. When Shortcuts was introduced in macOS 12, it was a little more complicated to support it. I only added support one or two years ago, when Apple already offered an easier way to do so. Sorry for the confusion. I have added this information to the website and will include it on the App Store with the next update.

      Reply
  12. Patrick Moran Avatar
    Patrick Moran

    Ir rook me a long time to realize that when you wrote “just hit play” or words to that effect, I was not to look for a button with the word “play” on it.
    I had to reinstall your very nice application because the first copy got corrupted somehow. So this is the second time I got caught by the same confusion.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      I see how it might be confusing for someone new to the app. I’ve updated the website to include the button icon which should make it clearer, and I will see if I can make the onboarding procedure more intuitive for newcomers.

      Reply
  13. Bill Prothero Avatar
    Bill Prothero

    I am having trouble getting the best Filter settings to reduce copy errors.
    It would help a LOT if there were some simple examples of specifying the filtering out of:
    1. How to specify the filter params to inhibit a folder and its contents from the copy
    2. How to filter out a particular file.
    Here are some problems I’m having:
    How could I change the HIDE parameter to stop this error? Is the “.” just before “TemporaryItems” the problem? I want to reference a folder and its contents.
    Error scanning /Volumes/External-BU-TB-1/.TemporaryItems
    The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation not permitted
    NSPOSIXErrorDomain 1

    Or this error:
    Error setting metadata for /Volumes/External-BU-TB-1/Resources3 Bu1/Users-iBook Pro/prothero/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal
    Couldn’t set the custom file icon.

    or:
    Error setting metadata for /Volumes/External-BU-TB-1/.Trashes
    You don’t have permission to save the file “.Trashes” in the folder “External-BU-TB-1”.
    NSCocoaErrorDomain 513

    It would help me immensely if there were some simple examples posted of typical copy errors that a newby to SyncTime and system programming would encounter.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      There are some help topics that should help you solve those issues: What are .DS_Store, .localized, .Spotlight-V100 etc.? and How do I solve the error “Setting the custom file icon failed”?

      Reply
  14. Edgardo Avatar
    Edgardo

    Is it possible to keep the main root directory of the source when it is copied to the destination?

    Example: Backup C:\Folder01 to D:\MyBackups\

    = D:\MyBackups\Folder01\All content of Folder01.

    Thanks and Merry Christmas.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      I understand that you want to keep the same name of the source directory. This should be easy by simply creating a directory with that name on the destination volume and selecting it as the destination.

      Reply
  15. Henry Lausch Avatar
    Henry Lausch

    I’d like to use AppleScript to control SyncTime. Will the below script do what I’m looking to do? I’m not sure about the “Quit SyncTime” part.

    tell application “SyncTime”
    run sync group “Local Backups”
    once all syncs are completed “Quit SyncTime”
    end tell

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      The “Quit SyncTime” part won’t work unless you have a script with that name installed in your User Scripts directory. For help about creating a script: Action after sync completion.

      Reply
  16. Joe M. Avatar
    Joe M.

    I recently had to reinstall the Operating system on an M3 2024 MacBook Air. (Sequoia 15.2) After reinstalling Synctime (14.12.3 (164)) I continue to get multiple errors on syncs. The errors are for “dot files” e.g “.Spotlight-V100″,”.Temporaryitems”,”.Trashes”, “.Documentrevisions-V100”, “.DS_Store”. Repeating sync does not resolve them.

    Any idea how I should proceed?

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Please see What are .DS_Store, .localized, .Spotlight-V100 etc.?

      Reply
  17. Justin Avatar
    Justin

    Hi, I installed SyncTime Lite and ran a test using the “incremental” backup solution. I created two local folders, test1 and test2, and set to backup incrementally from test1 to test2. To start with I just put a few files in test1. Between runs I added, deleted and modified some files in test1. When there was a change in test1, the whole folder was copied to a new subfolder in test2, including the files that had not changed. The behavior I expected was for the unchanged files to be replaced by aliases in the new subfolder. Is that not a thing? The speed and simplicity are impressive, but ultimately I’m looking for a backup solution for an external volume with terabytes of data on it, so it’s not really practical to create full copies of unchanged files on a regular basis. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to fix this. Thanks

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      The unchanged files are linked by so-called “hard links”, which are indistinguishable from the linked files in the Finder. They are not full copies. You can read more about this here: Backup strategy.

      Reply
  18. Bill Maslen Avatar
    Bill Maslen

    After much successful syncing with SyncTime, which is a lovely app, it’s suddenly decided that none of the folders on my machine can be opened (every attempt to open a new “base” produces the message “The file could not be opened”). SyncTime has full disk access permissions.

    I’m running the latest version 4.12.3 (164) on macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 (MacBook Pro 14, M1 Pro). I’ve successfully run operations with this version of the app up until the end of last week.

    I have uninstalled and reinstalled it (twice, in fact!) using a full-fat uninstaller.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      It sounds like you’re experiencing an issue with macOS 15 that randomly prevents apps from accessing your files. This should have been fixed by Apple in macOS 15.1, so I would suggest that you update macOS and try if you still have any issues. You can read the technical discussion about the issue here: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764435?answerId=806097022#806097022

      Reply
  19. Les Avatar
    Les

    Is it possible to keep two external drives synced? They are not always connected, but when they are, they can be connected at a similar time. This is to edit media on one drive, and have it backed up on the other.

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Yes, it doesn’t matter if the drives are internal or external. If you’re unsure, you can always download SyncTime Lite for free from the App Store, which allows you to test all the features of SyncTime.

      Reply
  20. Garry Gould Avatar
    Garry Gould

    Hi, I recently purchased SyncTime for a simple application. I use it to back up a very large folder (736GB) containing many other folders and files. Previously, this was a lengthy process that took about 6 hours, so I only did it weekly. Now with SyncTime I can backup daily, overnight. I think I have set it up correctly, but I occasionally get an error which alarmed me. It says, “Some source files will overwrite more recent destination files”. In my mind, that should not be possible. Could that be related to something I have done wrong?

    The other small issue is that I get a report most mornings that says what has happened in the previous night’s backup. It appears I have to OK that report each morning before it finishes the backup operation. Is there a way to make this automatic so that I don’t have to do the review, rather like Time Machine? Thanks, Garry

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Since the overwrite policy is set to „Overwrite if modification date or size is different“, it can happen that a source file is older than a destination file. You would have to change the overwrite policy or check what files are highlighted in yellow in the confirmation dialog to make sure if the older modification date on the source makes sense.

      Regarding the confirmation dialog, you can skip it automatically, as seen here: Sync confirmation dialog.

      Reply
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