Btsync 2 Rapidaly Self-Authorizing And Duplicating Directories

[formerbtsyncuser]

What a disaster.  What a complete disaster.  I don't understand how 2.0 could completely and utterly destroy such a simple functional utility.  

 

First, all directories stopped syncing after the upgrade.  Turns out that the upgrade set up a default directory without asking on my Ubuntu machine that it did not have permissions to use, instead of using the directory it has permissions to use and had been using for over a year.  It absolutely would not accept any changes to the correct directory when I tried to fix it in the settings.  After 3 days of trying to get it to work I finally did a complete uninstall and reinstall on my Ubuntu machine.  

 

Trust me when I say this, when btsync 2 was not syncing any directories on either machine, that's the best it ever worked.

 

When I tried to set it back up it started copying all my files to unauthorized directory.  Here's the setup before this disaster.  

 

Windows: C:\Users\XXX\Music ----> Ubuntu: /home/XXX/Music and so on for 5 other directories.

 

After the reinstall it automatically, without asking, started copying files from C:\Users\XXX\Music to /home/XXX/Music (2), a directory it created for no reason without authorization.  Here's where things get good.  Now my windows machine sees a new directory.  This directory is not a directory added to the list of approved sync directories but does btsync care?  Apparently not!  It started copying Music (2) back to the Windows machine in C:\Users\XXX\BitTorrent Sync (where did that come from?!?!?!?!), another directory that didn't exist before and was never authorized.  (Oh yeah, when I tried to delete it I was told my user didn't have permission! On my own machine where I am the only user and admin, under my user directory.)

 

And if you haven't caught on to what's happening now, it didn't stop there.  The Ubuntu machine sees the new C:\Users\XXX\BitTorrent Sync\Music (2) on Windows and starts syncing it to a new directory it created for just such an occasion, /home/XXX/Music (3).  And this was happening for all directories I had set up, 6 in all.  I had Documents (2), Documents (3), Pictures (2), Pictures (3), Videos (2), Videos (3) all rapidly duplicating themselves over and over back and forth between machines.  Had I walked away both hard drives would have been full in a matter of minutes from the files rapidly duplicating and reduplicating themselves back and forth between machines.  I had no choice but to remove all directories from btsync. 

 

It should have stopped there, but oh boy it didn't.  After all authorized directories were removed from both machines, I sat there in utter disgust/disappointment/confusion.  And within 60 seconds right before my very eyes btsync started randomly adding directories from both computers to the authorized sync directories.  I wasn't touching the keyboard or mouse yet both the Windows GUI and the web interface I was viewing from the Ubuntu box just started randomly adding and authorizing directories from each machine, I watched as more and more directories just started populating in both windows and started syncing with each other out of nowhere.

 

I started deleting them and more kept popping in.  I had no choice but to quickly uninstall btsync 2 from both machines.

 

At this point I have now identified at least 18 directories between the two machines that btsync 2 created without authorization and I have no idea if I've found them all.

[iswrong]

First, all directories stopped syncing after the upgrade.

 

Did you use one of the tarballs or the yeasoft Ubuntu packages? I did the upgrade from 1.4 -> 2.0 using the yeasoft packages, which worked without an effort.

 

After the reinstall it automatically, without asking, started copying files from C:\Users\XXX\Music to /home/XXX/Music (2), a directory it created for no reason without authorization.

 

 

So far, I still understand what happened. In Bittorrent Sync 2.0, any share that is added to your identity is added to all peers (either disconnected or connected). So, what probably happened here is that Sync 2.0 on Windows has a 'Music' folder, Sync on Ubuntu doesn't have it (according to it's own configuration). Then it tries to add the 'Music' share automatically by creating a 'Music' folder. However, it then finds '/home/XXX/Music' and does not want to overwrite that folder and creates '/home/XXX/Music (2)'. It always does that when a folder already exists.

 

Now my windows machine sees a new directory.  This directory is not a directory added to the list of approved sync directories but does btsync care?Apparently not!  It started copying Music (2) back to the Windows machine in C:\Users\XXX\BitTorrent Sync (where did that come from?!?!?!?!), another directory that didn't exist before and was never authorized.  (Oh yeah, when I tried to delete it I was told my user didn't have permission! On my own machine where I am the only user and admin, under my user directory.)

 

This must be a bug. Since Sync created the 'Music (2)' folder on Ubuntu to synchronize 'Music' on Windows, it should not consider that a new share and start syncing to Windows again. If you still have the logs, I guess it would be helpful to send them to support, even if you are a former user now . Maybe it will help preventing this for others...