Reproducible Bug: Syncing The Root Of A Drive On Windows Not Possible


MisterRider

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Greetings Sync Monkeys,

 

I absolutely LOVE BTsync - great job so far. I created this user to participate in the forum so I can tell you about a problem I have spent a full day on trying to resolve and can not:

 

I am a media creator and have my sound libraries on a 2TB drive. I want to sync these libraries to my laptop so I can easily create music using these libraries on the road. Given the massive size and somewhat dynamic nature of these libraries (I constantly update my sounds), BTsync is PERFECT for what I need.

 

I set up BTsync to syncronize my S: drive on my workstation to my S: drive on my laptop.

I did the same with my T: drive (my second set of libraries). To my dismay, on one drive, only a few megabytes of 1.2 terabytes syncronized, and on the other drive *nothing* synchronized.

 

I tried changing permissions, drive ownership, share settings, tried leaving it overnight to sync - all to my dismay. The indexing on the host machine was not at all matching up with what it should have been. Then I discovered how to turn on the debug logging. here is what I found in the error log:

 

New torrent created for file System Volume Information\tracking.log mt:1388884139 DA49A9B09544F1E47F42C5B97919A7EF45CA6550
[2014-01-12 19:49:30.112] SyncFolderScanner: Got error 5 while obtaining file info for \\?\Q:\System Volume Information\

 

 

Something was up with the System Volume Information folder (a system folder present on the root of Windows drives). I did some more hunting, and someone had come up with a solution, granting Admin rights to the folder:

 

http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/26177-solved-issues-with-folder-system-volume-information-on-windows-machine/ 

 

I tried this solution, but got another error:

 

New torrent created for file System Volume Information\tracking.log mt:1388884139 DA49A9B09544F1E47F42C5B97919A7EF45CA6550
[2014-01-12 19:49:30.112] SyncFolderScanner: Got error 5 while obtaining file info for \\?\Q:\System Volume Information\SPP

 

So, it's the same error, but nested down a level. I wasn't about to changed permissions on 4 drives , nested X levels deep. So, I did some more hunting and found this article:

 

http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/22772-suggestion-to-add-several-windows-specific-entries-to-syncignore/

 

The poster suggested adding the recycle bin and the system volume information folders to the default sync exclusion list. An excellent idea! But the Admin disagreed, saying "I don't think these things shouldn't be added to the default .SyncIgnore file as they are very specific use cases!!"

 

I ahve to say I *completely* disagree. In my case, and in the case of many media creators, syncing an entire drive is paramount. For example, media libraries, client drives, video capture drives etc. I'm not sure if that Admin had a limited understanding of Windows, but it seems to me that calling a root drive sync a "specific use case" is a bit strange!

 

Anyhow, at this point it appears that BTsync will *not* sync properly using the root of a drive.

 

Is there anyone else who would agree?

Is this a good feature request?

Do you think it reasonable to want to use BTsync in this manner?

If so, is there a fix in the works?

 

keep up the AWESOME work, BTsync!

 

MR

 

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Related posts

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http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/26177-solved-issues-with-folder-system-volume-information-on-windows-machine/

 

http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/22772-suggestion-to-add-several-windows-specific-entries-to-syncignore/

 

 

 

 

 

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Anyhow, at this point it appears that BTsync will *not* sync properly using the root of a drive.
Hi MisterRider,

The matter is that the folder has only SYSTEM permissions, it is not necessarily the root of a drive.
In the next version of BTsync it will be fixed.
Thanks.
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  • 1 month later...

Hi MisterRider etc. I started using BitTorrent Sync a couple of days ago and immediately hit upon this problem by attempting to sync an entire secondary drive. I have read all of the above and the other topic linked to above. I don't want to get into the debate as to whether Recycle Bin and System Volume Information should be permanently included in the default .SyncIgnore file/s (I'm kinda on the fence with that one) but I'm wondering if anyone actually tried this 'workaround'. I've tried it by adding the following line to the .SyncIgnore file in the root of the drive in question....

 

\System Volume Information

 

... and various other iterations of the same text but it keeps failing to index all files due to the 'error 5' logged in the logs.

 

I've closed BitTorrent Sync before editing the .SyncIgnore file and avoided all the other gotchas with editing this file.

 

Kind regards,

 

James

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