“Can`t open the destination folder” error notification


vitz1

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Hi,

Being trying to share a folder I do the following:

  • copy the folder secret
  • open Bittorrent Sync client on another PC
  • choose Tab “Shared folders”
  • hit "add" button
  • Paste the secret to “Shared secret” field and…..

Finally I get an error notification “Can`t open the destination folder” (please see screenshot)

Could you advise what is wrong?

Thanks.

post-24164-0-20092900-1366904598_thumb.p

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Thanks, but it does not seem to be the case. The folder I am trying to share is not used by any application/process - it is just a regular brand new folder in my documents.

Is that the issue is somewhat special? I thought it was just some typical newcomers problem. Are there any suggestions, if there are? Thanks.

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I tried some folders on two laptops generating secrets on any of the laptops - no way, so, yes, it happens for every folder I try to add to BitTorrent Sync regardless of its location :(

Thanks for that, vitz1 - can I also ask, are you logged on to your laptops with an administrative account, or a regular, restricted/limited user account?

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Ok, so so far we've ruled out then:

A ) the location/name of the folder as being the issue

B ) the location being "locked"/"in use" at the same time by the system, or some other process or application

C ) the type of user account logged on as

So, the next logical question would be; what OS version's are you guys all using? ...I wonder if there's perhaps a similarity/connection there?

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As posted above I had this "Can't open the destination folder" error" problem. After struggling using three different computers, and trying to sync different folders, I found my problem.

When trying to sync with the second and third computers I was leaving the "folder to sync" field empty.

I don't know why, but I thought that this field should only be filled in on the first computer to direct what files should be shared. Its only later I thought "but where does the synced files go on the second computer?" that I realised the other computers should also have a destination folder to sync.

Once I set everything up properly, and waited a few minutes, the folders synced and updated.

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As posted above I had this "Can't open the destination folder" error" problem. After struggling using three different computers, and trying to sync different folders, I found my problem.

When trying to sync with the second and third computers I was leaving the "folder to sync" field empty.

I don't know why, but I thought that this field should only be filled in on the first computer to direct what files should be shared. Its only later I thought "but where does the synced files go on the second computer?" that I realised the other computers should also have a destination folder to sync.

Once I set everything up properly, and waited a few minutes, the folders synced and updated.

Great! Glad you've managed to track down the issue! Yes, "Can't open the destination folder" is not a very user-friendly error - it would be much clearer if this said "Please select a folder to sync" or similar!

Hopefully the team will re-word this error, but in the meantime, as it appears to be catching a number of users out, I've now added an Unofficial FAQ entry to clarify the meaning of this error!

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As posted above I had this "Can't open the destination folder" error" problem. After struggling using three different computers, and trying to sync different folders, I found my problem.

When trying to sync with the second and third computers I was leaving the "folder to sync" field empty.

I don't know why, but I thought that this field should only be filled in on the first computer to direct what files should be shared. Its only later I thought "but where does the synced files go on the second computer?" that I realised the other computers should also have a destination folder to sync.

Once I set everything up properly, and waited a few minutes, the folders synced and updated.

Great! This will be sent to BitTorrent Sync Support as a reply to the ticket I have created regarding the issue. I hope they will set more meaningful notification for the error. Also it is badly needed to clarify the step of destination folder setting on the recipient side in the full product guide and getting started one (no doubts accompanied by screenshot)

Thanks again.

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Hi! Having the same problem here but Vlokki's solution couldn't help.

My OS is ubuntu 12.10, the second OS is Vista SP2.

What do you mean by folder being locked or in use by another application? Could it be playing the audio files from the shared folder for example?

I don't think location could be the problem since the folders I share are on local hard disk and on an external (USB).

And as for type of user account, there's no admin on ubuntu, so...

Any idea?

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What do you mean by folder being locked or in use by another application? Could it be playing the audio files from the shared folder for example?

Just to clear something up ... folders cannot be "locked" like files can. The only way this can possibly be misconstrued as exclusive access locking is if you were to have explorer, cmd, bash, etc., present in a directory of which you were trying to delete. For example:

cd folder

rmdir ../folder

That would result in an error on any operating system (at least without specifying some manual flags to the command), but this is not the same as exclusive access locking used for files, where a given file is open for exclusive access by an application so all other applications are prevented from accessing that file.

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  • 6 months later...

hey all, just encountered this when doing the photo back up option. The iOS app says it's uploading the photos, but when I try to use the secret it generated on my mac, i get the "can't open destination" error.

I had a similar issue mac to mac, and found that creating a folder of the same name triggered the syncing. 

 

Not sure what folder name the iOS camera backups want to be in, and more to the point, not sure where they're going right now.

 

Any thoughts?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi jwilker,

 

This error is shown when BTSync was unable to write service data in the selected folder. It usually happens by one of 2 reasons:

1. The folder you select does not exist (or you just forget to select it).

2. The user running BTSync does not have enough permissions to write data in the folder.

 

Just to make sure you did not miss the important step: when you add new Sync folder on your Mac - you need to put both secret and choose a folder, like on a screenshot below. If you leave "folder" blank - you'll get the error message.

 

 

Screen_Shot_2014_01_21_at_3_32_53_PM.png
 

 

If this is not the case - could you please try adding different folder and check if you get the same error message?

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