Folder List Disappeared

[ocinatas]

I noticed today that the list of sync folders in btsync v. 1.4.103 on my laptop running Windows 8 is now empty.  Up until a few days ago, I was syncing about 15 folders with other machines in my office.  The other machines are fine.

 

I started to go through the hassle of re-adding folders only to find that if I connect with the folder I was syncing before, the contents of my local folder get deleted and then the other machines transfer theirs.  This might be fine except that there are files on my machine that are not on the others.

 

First, why would my machine suddenly stop syncing all folders?  Second, is there a way at this point to sync files without deleting my local files?  

 

I know I can sync to an empty directory and then transfer new files to that new sync directory, but there are probably hundreds if not thousands of those and I want to avoid that.

 

 

[RomanZ]

@ocinatas

Folder list is stored in %appdata%\BitTorrent Sync\sync.dat file. If you get it empty - it is very likely that someone or some app deleted \ corrupt the file. 

 

As for the adding folders again - what makes you think that files were deleted and retransferred? Have you seen it in file manager / explorer? Sync should not delete the files at all if they are same as on other peers (and they are same - as I understood the folder stayed synced before the issue occurred).

[ocinatas]

For example, when I re-added folder ...\bysync\forms the files synced to ...\btsync\forms\forms.  So when I saw everything being re-created, I was actually seeing the new subfolder being created.  The existing files are fine in the parent folder.  They were not overwritten.

 

When I send a Share link from another machine in the office, should I instead save to the ...\btsync folder on my laptop when I'm asked to "Save to location"?

 

Or what's a better way to re-add a folder? 

 

Thanks for the reply.

[RomanZ]

@ocinatas

When you are receiving link - you need to choose the path to save sync folder, not the content of the folder. So you need to choose \btsync\ and Sync will create "forms" on it's own.

 

Alternatively, you can share the folder by copying key from folder properties and inserting it via "enter key" function - though note that this is less secure than transferring link and you need to keep your key in secret and use protected ways of transferring data.