Conflict Resolution

[rdebath]

There seem to be some difficult bugs where BTsync is picking the wrong file when there is (or it sees) a conflict.

Personally I would like to have a mode where a change conflict causes BOTH the modified files to be created, the older one with a different name (say).

BUT, I suspect this has a wider use in the realm of debugging because it will make every conflict very obvious and if some of them aren't actually real conflicts (but something manufactured by network effects) this will be much easier to detect and hopefully debug.

So can I request a version then NEVER deletes a file due to a change conflict.

[peterschink]

Absolute need for a conflict resolution. I don't like that only one (the most recent) version of a file (i.e., changes on more than one device) is saved. For example *ähem* Dropbox has a very good "conflicted copy" feature.

[victorwoo]

Option to reserve both conflicted files.

I think it's useful to reserve both conflicted files like DropBox's behavior. It prevents user from loosing important data.

[himselfv]

Conflict resolution. At least simple Dropbox-style "duplicate copies". It would be nice if you could add a "post-sync" step so that custom conflict resolution apps could be run (e.g. text merge, custom DB merge etc).

 

Without conflict resolution there's a high risk of losing data. SyncArchive is not enough as with large files it grows in size too quickly.

[benguild]

ref: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/29854-if-you-restore-from-a-backup-would-sync-overwrite-the-newer-files-on-other-nodes-with-backed-up-copies-or-pull-newer-copies-from-other-nodes/

 

 

Just wondering. I would assume it should pull newer copies from other nodes, but the files restored from backup were technically "written" more recently to disk. (although not updated)

 

 

 

 

I actually just tested this as an experiment and found inconsistent behavior. If I went in and modified the files before they synced, that copy would sync over as expected to other peers. However, for some reason if I only modified rows in a database, that database was somehow overwritten later by data from a read-only node after restoring from a system static disk backup.

 

It'd be nice if Sync would instead prompt for conflicts (with an option to "apply for all" or something to not receive a million prompts) vs. just overwriting local data. Date differences can be a little suspicious and data loss really sucks.

 

Could someone re-title this thread and move it to the wish list forum?

 

[GreatMarko]

For completeness, the following users also previously requested such features in the original Wishlist thread:
 

2. Conflict handling

1 Conflict resolution: has to be absolutely top of the list for a functional sync app!

2. Conflict support
Even Live Mesh style conflict support is better than nothing (copy of both conflicted versions with the device name appended).

2. Conflict resolution. I don't like that only one (the most recent) version of a conflicted file (i.e., changes on more than one device) is saved. I'd like to see something added to the file names to identify the conflict so the user can sort it out. The addition could be a device identifier, appending a different number to create a unique file name. If a user was absolutely certain that all conflicts should be reduced to one file (say, the most current), have a global option to set in the program. It could be Resolution of file conflicts: (1) keep only the most current, (2) keep all and create unique filenames. I personally wouldn't want or need an option to monitor conflicts in real time. Maybe a conflict log would be useful for large volume users.

5. Conflict resolution UI in case of a file having been modified on both devices separately since last sync.

[Decioy]

For completeness, the following users also previously requested such features in the original Wishlist thread:

 

 

Any news on adding conflict resolution?

[jakvil]

What about a book in/book out file locking system? One would book a file out, locking it while you are working on it, then book it in again which unlocks it for use, or, in the spirit of "we are all adults here", flag the file as currently in-use and by whom.  This would at least warn other peers from changing anything in the same file until you are done.  

 

I'm not talking full fledged Git here and I realise distributed file locking has its problems, but even a suitably watered down protocol would eliminate at least some (maybe a significant amount of?) possible conflicts.  It would certainly provide a determined group of (business) users with a valuable tool to avoid conflicts altogether.   

 

And yes: conflict resolution would still be great for those cases which fell through the protocol cracks please.

[Mouserider]

Hi,

 

obviously this is not a never-before-seen topic, however surprisingly I could not find any that isn't already quite old or different/more complicated than my very basic use case.

 

I still use FreeFileSync for some things, because it gives me the opportunity to review what has changed and what will be done. For some kind of data this won't change as it is just a different concept and there is no intention Sync should be the first choice for such use cases.

 

However, basic conflict notification/management would be a big improvement already for most of them. There is no need to unlink/re-link devices, synchronize folders with other existing folders etc.

 

Just knowing that when 2 devices that see each other for the last time at T1, later at T2 device A updates a file and at T3 device B updates the same file before meeting again at T4, the revision of device A will be silently moved to the Archive does not really give me a good feeling using Sync for shared working or critical data.

 

Just a simple notification that there was a conflict (changed file on both sides since last sync.) would defuse this issue a lot. You could react to the problem before it might be too late already when you notice it or when it's still no big mess to fix it.

 

PS:
Tested with 2.2.7 on Windows and 2.2.4 on Android

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited January 9, 2016 by Mouserider

[xerus]

I am using the latest Version (2.7.2) on Linux, and recently amended my notes on two machines. With git-style conflict resolution these changes could have probably been automatically resolved, but now the one I changed last simply overwrote the other changes. This is bonkers!

I had to search through the archive and find the other change and then integrate them manually. These notes would have straight-up been lost if I hadn't noticed that!

Kinda sad that I bought a Family License and now encounter major issues enticing me to switch away even before starting to apply the license in my family...