Sync Works, But Finder Is Not Aware

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

I have the following, strange problem: I sync several MACs. Sometimes when a file is created on one, it gets synced after a short while to another one (I can see it in the history), but I cannot see it in Finder (even after some hours). After forcing a Finder relaunch, the file appears immediately.

 

Anyone experiencing something similar?

 

Thx in advance

 

Regards,

 

Attila 

[RomanZ]

@horvatha,

 

What is your MacOS version? Isn't it 10.6? Also, when the issue happens - could you please try to hit CMD-R to refresh the directory without restarting Finder?

 

Also, could you please try to turn on a hidden files and see what is happening in the directory when History says that file already synced? If you'll see that file that was just synced (but still invisible) is saved to dir with "!sync" extension - the sync might simply not finished yet and you need to wait a bit until file gets renamed to proper name and hidden attribute gets removed.

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

Thank you for the answer. I have 10.9.2. I am afraid CMD-R does not work in 10.9 (or at least it shows the original of an alias), my only options for folder refreshing are:

1. jumping out of the folder and then back in, but I tried it, it does not change anything;

2. relaunching finder.

 

I cannot predict, which file will suffer next from the problem I mentioned, so I cannot reply to your question at once but I will get back as soon as it happens again. Last time I waited two days for a file just to check the behavior, but nothing happend. Relaunching finder solved the problem immediately.

 

Regards,

 

Attila

[RomanZ]

Attila,

 

I see 2 possible scenarios on what is happening:

1. The file is actually on the disk, but Finder does not see it by some reason.

2. The file is stored in BTSync's cache and not flushed to the disk until Finder restarted (by some reason).

 

Let's try to see which scenario is true indeed. When the issue happens (you see that the file is synced in history, but does not see it in Finder), please follow next steps:

 

1) Open Terminal window.

2) Navigate to file's expected location using "cd" command

3) use "ls -l" command to see the file list in the directory. Check if file is actually seen from terminal.

 

If you see it in terminal, but not in Finder - I suggest that this is a Finder issue, which is possibly might be called by one of Finder's extensions installed.

 

If you do not see file in terminal - it looks to be a BTSync issue and we'll need to collect debug logs to understand what is happening.

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

So it turned out to be the first scenario. Files can be seen in the terminal, seem to be fully downloaded, but in finder there is no file (on one of the macs) or a .!sync extension is attached (on an other one). A windows machine saw the file immediately. As far as I know there are no finder plugins installed. Is there a specific folder in Library for finder plugins?

 

Thx in advance,

 

Attila

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

It keeps happening in 1.3.105. In the terminal I can see the newly added file, but the Finder does not show it until being relaunched. It is the same on all of our macs (3 pcs). No Finder plugins are installed. Any ideas?

 

Thx in advance,

 

Attila

Hi!
 

There is an interesting addition to the problem: I can see the file, if I search for it in spotlight, and after jumping from spotlight to finder (CMD+Enter), the file turns up immediately. And from this point, the file can be found by navigating from any other folder, no finder relaunch is needed.

 

I hope this helps identifying the problem.

 

Regards,

 

Attila

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

No ideas? It seems so strange, that no one else has this kind of problem, but all of our macs suffer from it. Can it be related to file names? We use accentuated letters (Hungarian) and spaces in the path (and there are quite long paths).

 

Bye

[RomanZ]

@horvatha

 

Sounds strange. It doesn't look to be Sync issue - it managed to write the file to disk and that's it, its job is done. OSX does well with handling international characters, so it also should not be an issue.

 

Is there a file or filename which always behaves in this way (so we can try it in our lab)?

[horvatha]

Hi!

 

Thanks for the reply! I am not sure that it is exclusive, but as far as I remember in our case it always happend with MACOffice files (.doc and .xls etc), but we mostly use BTSync for syncing our work related files. For example there is this file (3GSOLAR Business Plan 1d2 HO.docx):

 

[20140528 12:53:10.017] Torrent /Users/horvatha/Sync/TAD/Projektek/3GSOLAR HHTIS 3GSolar Research/30 Munkaközi anyagok/32 Business Plan/3GSOLAR Business Plan 1d2 HO.docx/com.apple.FinderInfo status:137 error:<NULL> meta:1 conns:1 io:1

[20140528 12:53:11.261] Torrent /Users/horvatha/Sync/TAD/Projektek/3GSOLAR HHTIS 3GSolar Research/30 Munkaközi anyagok/32 Business Plan/3GSOLAR Business Plan 1d2 HO.docx/com.apple.FinderInfo status:137 error:<NULL> meta:1 conns:0 io:0

[20140528 12:53:11.261] Force unloading torrent /Users/horvatha/Sync/TAD/Projektek/3GSOLAR HHTIS 3GSolar Research/30 Munkaközi anyagok/32 Business Plan/3GSOLAR Business Plan 1d2 HO.docx/com.apple.FinderInfo

[20140528 12:54:23.211] SyncFilesController [file updated]: Processing file /Users/horvatha/Sync/TAD/Projektek/3GSOLAR HHTIS 3GSolar Research/30 Munkaközi anyagok/32 Business Plan/3GSOLAR Business Plan 1d2 HO.docx 1401200661 10408141

 

We are trying to intentionally reproduce the phenomenon, but till this time could not find a reproduceable sequence of steps.

 

Sadly, there is no explicit sign of the error (meaning that if my colleague does not tell me, he added a new file to a folder and it did not appear as usual, I don't know about it).

 

Regards,

 

Attila

[RomanZ]

Attila,

 

Could you please share some non-top-secret file with me that was not visible at least once so we can try repro in our lab? I'll need also a full path to this file as well to make sure that repro is precise.

 

Thanks!

[Dr Jeff]

Hi RomanZ,

 

Having the same issue with this.  Everything is syncing. Can even create a new folder and it will appear on the other server.

 

However there are files missing or hidden for some reason and I don't understand why.  Any insight to correct this would be amazing.

 

Thanks

[RomanZ]

@Dr Jeff

 

Do I understand correctly that in your case these "hidden-after-sync" files are also visible in terminal?

[Dr Jeff]

Hi RomanZ,

 

I have tried to use terminal to find the hidden after sync process, but I am unable to find it. Maybe because I don't know the procedure to find hidden files through terminal.

 

However, I know that this is the issue, because the other server has all the files and recently I added a new folder and I could see folder in the server that I am having the issue with.

 

Would be great to get your help.

 

Thanks

[Dr Jeff]

Hi RomanZ,

 

I recently checked to see if the files are hidden and it does not seems to be the case! Looks the sync is either stuck or did not sync properly to folder. I have been able add new files and folders from one server to the other.

 

I'll raise it on another part of the forum.

 

Thanks