Btsync Nightmare: Restoring Thousands Of Old Files


chicagonyc

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I have four computers that I've been keeping synced with BTSync. Two are running Windows 8, two are running Windows 7. I'm on the latest (1.3.106) version of BTSync on 3 of the machines and one is running 1.3.105 (a Thinkpad running Windows 7).

 

The Thinkpad running Windows 7 isn't used very often. I boot it up every month or so (hence why it has a very slightly older version of BTsyc). The other 3 are run daily.

 

I've never had a problem before yesterday. I booted up my Thinkpad, and without thinking I just left it open and running. Little did I know -- the old versions of the files that were on that Thinkpad were synced to all of my daily running machines! Thousands of files.... overwritten with MONTH old versions.

 

The partly good news is that I see I have the latest copy of the overwritten files in SyncArchive. The really bad news is: how do I restore all these old files automatially?!?! Do I have to manually go into each folder and rename the latest version of a file from "blabla.2.dta" to "blabla.dta" and then copy over into the real directory? This is a prescription for many weeks of painful work.

 

What in the world is going on here? How can I trust BTSync if it so thoughtlessly overwrites newer files with older versions? Could it have been the difference between 1.3.105 and 1.3.106?!

 

Right now I've stopped BTsync on all machines and I have no idea how to proceed.

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chicagonyc,

 

This issue is known and it happens when there is an offline peer that is reconnected after a period of time and especially if some files are touched on it before starting Sync. the thing is on starting BitTorrent Sync it detects the latest version of file by change time (not "modified time") when it turns on, change time of the file equals to the start time. So it's considered to be the latest and propagated to other peers.

We are working on resolving this issue. So far, please do not touch files on the peer where BitTorrent Sync is off. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've just realised that the same, or something similar, has happened to me!

Just 2 machines syncing, my W7 laptop and my W7 storage server, both in my LAN, both running v. 1.3.109.

I've just realised that a huge number of files on my laptop have been moved into the .syncArchive. They're now syncing back from the server -- but why is anything being synced when the files have not been touched, many of them for years even? This is 30-odd GB of copying to and fro, just for fun...

 

And to cap it all, I now see that a couple of hours work of Friday last week is gone...

 

I guess that was it with BTSync until I read something positive.

Great program otherwise - if only it fulfilled its primary purpose :-(

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