Bitorrent Sync Randomly Deletes Files And Folders

[Nicholas Chan]

Hello there,

 

I am having this issue where Bitorrent Sync is installed on approximately 10 computers/laptops running Windows 7 and 1 Synology NAS.

 

On some of the computers, a certain set of files and folders will be regularly deleted at a random timing (ie. Computer A will have folders A, B and C and files D, E and F deleted) and only those files. The deleted files will always be found in .syncarchive of that particular computer.

 

Another computer for example, Computer B, will have folders X, Y, Z and files Q, R, S and the files will be regularly deleted at a random time also. These computers used to be sharing all the folders with each other, but an attempt to troubleshoot this random deletes resulted in me turning on "read-only" secrets for a number of the computers. However, the sort-of random timing file and folder deletes still persist.

 

I am going to attempt to troubleshoot further by the following steps:

 

1. Check if the Timezone on all the computers are correct.

2. Check if the time on all the computers/laptops and the NAS are correct.

3. Set a regular daily time sync.

 

Apart from that, I really have no idea what else might be the issue. The systems are all running ESET antivirus and Microsoft Office 2013, with all computers on wired network and laptops on wireless. That is pretty much it.

 

Any ideas?

[Helen]

@Nicholas Chan,

 

Do you have Sync launched on all machines all day long? This problem is know to us and it happens when some PCs are offline for a while, files are updated on them, and then they come back and delete the files which never existed on them from other peers. 

This problem will be addressed in the next release, since Sync's behavior will be changed a bit. 

 

On some of the computers, a certain set of files and folders will be regularly deleted at a random timing (ie. Computer A will have folders A, B and C and files D, E and F deleted) and only those files. The deleted files will always be found in .syncarchive of that particular computer.

 

Files will be placed to .SyncArchive on PC1 if they were deleted/modified on some other PC2. In other words, if you see a file in Archive on Computer A, then they were initially deleted on some other computer and this deletion propagated to Computer A. You may see which of them initially deleted the file on tab History (for Windows), it will say "Peername removed file ....." Go to this peer and check time settings (yes, incorrect time adds to the problem) and see if a file is placed to Bin. 

 

So far, please try not to touch the file on machines where BitTorrent Sync is off.