Sudden Loss Of Files On Both Computers Without Any Intervention...


pinitrius

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Before a few minutes I noticed BTSync icon indicated that Syncing was in progress. I thought it was weird since I made no changes in my synced folders so I went to check what it was doing...

I found it was deleting and had already deleted most of my synced files, all precious photos, from both my synced computers without any intervention from me! Actually it had deleted most of the files from 3 independent folders that I sync between my two computers.

I managed to find the files in .SyncArchive and I also keep other backups so no real damage happened but the experience was very disturbing in referance to BTSync reliability...

It is really a nice thought behind the app and I support it but I need to be able to trust it.

My experience so far was a good one but today's episode makes me think twice about trusting BTsync with such important files from now on.

 

I am not able to provide you with a valid log file because in my panic I exitted BTSync and when I started it again it had overwritten the log file.

 

The only abnormality was the my second computer, which is in another city, remained without internet connection for a few hours due to provider breakdown but that happened many hours before the event of deleted files.

 

I really want this app to work and I hope you can fix the glitches. That was a huge one.

Edited by pinitrius
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Hi pinitrius,

 

It's a pity that log was removed, it is really important for us to take a look at such issues.

 

Now on technical side of the issue. There is only one case when local BTSync decides to remove file or files: when it receives updated directory tree from remote peer - and this directory tree contained no files which should be deleted.

 

I wonder how much peers do you have for your photo library? Does any of peers stores synced folder on removable drive or network share?

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I sync two Windows computers in different cities via internet as well using the BTSync app on both my Android Nexus 7 2013 tablet and my iPhone 4S. No network drives or removable drives are involved. All synced folders are on permanent internal hard drives.

Could this be due to buggy Android or iPhone apps? I still try to no result to explain what happened...

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Just had a thought trying to explain what happened.

I have BTSync app on my Nexus 7 2013 tablet. I also use Clean Master app to remove unwanted files from the tablet. Could running Clean Master have anything to do with what happened?

Is there any way the deletion of my files on my two Desktops was triggered by my tablet after Clean Master tried to remove unwanted files and clear caches?

I am not even sure if I used Clean Master before the event but could that be what happened?

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It is definitely not iOS issue. iOS application has no full functionality due to OS limitations, so file deletion won't cause them to be deleted on other peers.

 

Android is different story: BTSync on Android is a fully functional client. So, if files on Android were deleted (or, for example, moved do a different location) - BTSync will decide that they were deleted and sync change to the rest of peers.

 

I do not know full algorithm of actions of Clean Master, but its actions might be a reason. For this case you can make your Nexus device a read-only peer to make sure it won't affect your photo collection.

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Following the loss of my files, which I managed to restore from other backups, I tried to add my Documents folder again BTSync but indexing finds only 8 files out of 44137! Also for my Music folder indexing counts about 400 files less than there actually are...


Something goes clearly wrong...


I have sent an email to BTSync's Support (request #7286) with log file attached and I am waiting for an answer.


BTSync is a marvelous idea and I can forgive it a bug or two but this kind of unreliability cant be tolerated with when it comes to precious files. I have lost trust and it will take some time and reassurance to use it again. I mean, I know it is still in Beta but these bugs are so fundamental to its use that render the app useless.

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Thank you for the log in ticket #7286, it helped us to pinpoint an issue with Syncing localized user profile in Windows. BTSync stumbles upon some folders it manages to enumerate but does not manage to read. Developers are investigating how it can be fixed.

 

Unfortunately, this issue lead to another known bug - when BTSync can't read some folder, it stops file indexing. This is the reason why you got synced only 8 files. This issue is known and is fixed in upcoming release.

 

I apologize for the inconvenience, we are doing our best to fix issues and make BTSync stable and reliable.

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  • 9 months later...

I regret to tell you that after many updates to Sync Application the problem still persists with Sync finding far less files to index than there actualy are (Only 8 out of 48000!!!).

 

I was and still am looking forward to using Sync and I think its basic ideas is brilliant but, at least in my case, it still cannot be trusted with precious data.

 

I hope ver 2.0, getting out of beta, will bring the much needed fixes.

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Help! I have a similar problem. I have files that were synced perfectly on two machines. When I booted up my notebook, it didn't sync, copying a folder from the other two to it. So I moved an older version of the folder on the notebook out to where the other two are located on the other two machines, thinking that it would sync up with the other two. Instead, it deleted all the files that were on the other two that were not on it!!! How can I get them back? I worked on several of the now missing files for hours! Please help me!

 

Update! I got them back! I found where the archive is. Thank you for a great program.

Edited by TheCatLady
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@pinitrius

Well, actually it should be already fixed in 1.4. Are you willing to send us debug logs so we can see what happens in your environment?

 

@TheCatLady

I'm somewhat lost in your scenario. Could you please describe step-by-step what was happening on each computer so I can understand at least if it was a design behavior or you encountered some bug?

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