Known Bugs & Features in SyncBack
SyncBack has been tested extensively, both by the developers and the 2BrightSparks Community Forum.
There have been many updates, improvements, and bug fixes, a list of which is available at:
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/changes.html
Reporting Bugs
If you are having problems with SyncBack, or have a question, please follow these steps:
Check you have the very latest version of SyncBack installed (click 'Help' then 'About' in the menu to see what your current version is).
Beginners may want to view the Online Tutorials.
Search the Forum to see if the problem has already been fixed, a solution found, or the query answered.
Check the help file, the FAQ section of the help file, and the Online FAQ.
Experiment to see if you have the same problem in different scenarios. For example, if using FTP try it with a different FTP server (also with FTP try using passive and non-passive). If using a network, try it without using the network. If using removable media, try changing the destination to your hard drive.
If we cannot reproduce your problem, then we cannot fix it. You really must provide step-by-step instructions so we can duplicate the error.
If you are still having problems, post a message on the Forums. Please include the following information:
Which operating system you are using (there are known problems with NT4).
What error message is being displayed.
Where the source and destination are (network, FTP, compressed, CDRW, etc).
If you are using FTP please say which type of FTP server you are using.
Describe exactly what steps need to be taken to reproduce the error. If we cannot reproduce your problem, then we cannot fix it.
Previous Versions of SyncBack
SyncBack has undergone extensive development and user testing since its inception. The following lists the most significant improvements that led to the release of SyncBack Please visit 2BrightSparks for a comprehensive list of features and fixes.
New or changed in Version V3.2
- English (core language); Catalan; Chinese Simplified; Chinese Traditional; Dutch; French; German; Hungarian; Italian; Polish; Portuguese (Brazilian); Spanish (Argentinean).
- Empty folders will be created/deleted even if profile fails
- Semi-colons can now be used in filenames with compression
- Stop button on tree is ghosted instead of disappearing when stop button is pressed
- Compression progress shown when using multi file compression
- A new version of SyncBack cannot be installed while it is running
- New -shutdown command line parameter
- Aborting an FTP transfer is now much quicker
- By default, new profiles will not use the Windows shell for file copying and deleting
- By default, new profiles will have Passive enabled for FTP
- By default, new profiles will not disconnected from network shares after a profile is run
- The blank password restriction (for XP Task Scheduler) can now be removed by SyncBack automatically when a profile is scheduled
- FTP part now identifies symbolically linked files/directories
- Improvements to the method empty folders are created/deleted
- Profile now exports strings with double-quotes
- Background tasks do not start for at least one minute after SyncBack started
- Profiles can now be saved even if disk or drive not connected
- Invalid file dates in single zips now caught
- Changed HTML log file so it doesn't use English character set by default
- Default font changed to improve readability for non-English versions
- Can now detect quota & credit exceeds on Titan and Raiden FTP servers
- Help file significantly updated
- Non-English strings no longer embedded in non-English versions of SyncBack
- When a scheduled task is created the 'Wake computer' option is enabled by default
- Run before/after programs are wrapped in double quotes (if the folder button is used)
- Can double click on profile in group profile screen to quickly add/remove profile to/from group
- Disk serial number shown in correct format in log
- Window sizes saved correctly if maximized
- Directories can now be filtered based on their name
- Empty directories are now handled correctly
- The sub-directories list can now also include directories in the destination
- The sub-directories list is created faster (and faster again on 2K/XP using NTFS)
- %DATE% environment variable can now be used
- Warning given when filename contains a non-standard apostrophe (')
- When not using the shell, the progress of a file copy is shown
- When not using the shell, stopping a profile is now immediate when copying a large file
- Handles selecting scripts for before/after runs better
- Option to automatically check for updates in Preferences menu
- Increased performance when setting date & time on a read-only file on FTP server
- Milli-seconds shown on Differences screen
- First instance of SyncBack now restored from tray when second instance run
- Next Run column now correctly sorted by date & time and not alphabetically
- Updated tree view component, which may remove 'External exception' errors
- New RotateBackup VBScript included
- New RemoveSourceAfter VBScript included
- Installation looks sexier :)
- New FTP option to force the FTP server into Binary mode before every file transfer
- The FTP read-timeout value is set to 15 seconds by default
- Warning given if option to delete/copy empty directories is enabled when using FTP (can reduce performance)
- The font selection is now used everywhere, not just for filenames (but the style, e.g. bold, is not used)
- New menu item (in Preferences) to re-associate SyncBack with .SPS files
- If SyncBack is forcibly closed while profiles are still running, the running profiles last result will be set to 'Aborted' instead of being left as 'Running', for example
- When a 'Run Before' program is set, it will now be run before the network connection to the source and destination are made, and before any FTP connection is made
- Media is ejected before the log file is displayed
- If a file cannot be deleted because it is locked then the user is prompted (if requested for in the profile settings)
- 500 files are now displayed per page in the Differences screen (was 250)
- 'File time is not GMT/UTC' is now visible on the FTP tab
- Emailed log files now contain all the error messages
- File sizes > 2GB now reported correctly (now 64bit)
- Option to not disconnect from network drive (to fix problems with Novell)
- Option to change temp directory when using compression
- Option to not make a local copy of a Zip file on a slow drive
- New menu item to make a bug report online
- Temp file specified for compression is also used to make temp copy when using slow device on destination
- 'File is locked' error message now reports a more accurate error, e.g. 'Access denied'
- A number of minor user interface changes, including fixing title in HTML log file
- Scheduler started automatically in Windows 95/98 when creating/modifying a schedule
- New interface when using Windows XP
- Temp zip file now moved instead of copying (can improve performance when temp directory is on same drive as Zip file)
- Can now resized Schedule window (fixed problem when using large fonts)
- New Read Timeout property for FTP (may fix some lockup problems)
- Warning when using FTP quote character as this breaks many FTP servers
- When cancelling settings, only given warning if any settings are changed
- New option to email log file only if errors occur
- Log file now created and written to before scanning starts
- Network connections are retried to try and reduce the chance of a profile failing because of 'Network errors'
- New option to ignore files that have not been modified/created within a certain time frame, e.g. last 7 days
- The display now clearly shows if a profile is configured as Group, Backup, synchronize, Restore or Custom
- Can now export AutoClose settings. AutoClose settings will now be exported on pre-XP systems.
- Can now use quote characters to wrap file and directory names that contain spaces (for FTP)
- Automatically detect IE proxy server and port number for FTP settings (not if using a script)
- Automatically retries file copy 1223 errors (related to temporary network problems)
- The sub-directory selection option on profile setup has been changed from a checkbox to a drop-down list
- The email subject will be prefixed with [Failed] if the profile run failed
- The profile description (in Profile Setup) will now say if the profile will run slowly due to its settings
- When reading and writing files to an FTP server, SyncBack will automatically change the files permissions as required to do the get/put and then revert them back
- System wide hotkeys can be assigned to profiles (including group profiles) so they run automatically when pressed
- Program caption (and About dialog caption) now say exactly which version of SyncBack it is
- Identifies changes in file attributes
- Checks if the Windows Task Scheduler service is installed and running (NT/2K/XP only)
- Warning given if Zip file contains more than 65,535 files
- Seconds difference is now 2 by default. This is to avoid problems with FAT and UNIX drives (which are not as accurate as NTFS)
- Option to clear archive attribute of source and destination files when copied
- Zip files on removable and network drives are copied first to local drive, processed, and copied back to the original location. This improves performance.
- Can automatically import profiles by double-clicking .sps files
- Option to abort the profile is the before program fails
- Option to run the after program even if the profile fails
- New icons in Differences screen to help show what the differences are
- Can now choose not to show Differences screen again from the screen itself
- More hot-keys
Version 2
- Profile names must be valid filenames
- Now reports correct total scan time
- Can import and export profiles
- Minor bug fixes and user interface improvements
- Specific sub-directories (and their files) can be backed-up/synchronized or not
- Can ignore file modification time differences, e.g. 2 second differences can be ignored (helpful for when destination drive is not on a Windows system, e.g. using SAMBA)
- Considerably faster directory scan time, therefore backups are much quicker (especially for backups with many files and directories and/or where file masks are used)
- Options to let Windows shell copy and delete files (allows deleted files to be moved to recycle, aborted copies, etc).
- File hashing is now only performed if no other changes detected and both the source and destination file can be read (results in quicker backups)
- Profiles can be ordered in a group profile (no longer forced to be alphabetically ordered)
- Can perform a simulated restore
- A profile can be run mimized (using -m command line option before profile name)
- Profiles run via the Windows Task Scheduler are now created to run minimized by default
- New log file format, more detail, and log file is now automatically split into seperate files (pages)
- If a profile is renamed, and it has a schedule, the user is prompted to change the schedules parameters (future versions may do this automatically)
- Numerous minor changes to handle scheduled tasks that run more than one profile
- The items shown in the Differences form can be filtered, the column widths are set automatically, and the form caption displays profiles name and if it is a simulated run or restore
- Can now abort a scan earlier
- Aborting a group profile aborts all the profiles in the group not just the current profile
- Can now delete multiple profiles in one go instead of just one at a time
- Can now display log file for multiple profiles in one go instead of just one at a time
- When a profile is copied, the last run result and status are not copied and neither is the log file
- A backup, restore, or sync is aborted if a directory cannot be scanned
- The profile setup screen includes a description (in English) of the profile settings to help users understand what the profile will dowere corrupted)
- Directory selection dialogs now always centred in screen
- Uninstall now completely removes registry entries (HKCU), settings files, and log files for all profiles
- By default, files (files in the destination but not in the source) are not deleted for backup profiles
- The profile result now indicates if the last run was a restore
- An extra warning is given if running a profile as a restore and last result was not a success
- Warns if an attempt is made to create a profile to backup an entire drive
- Can run a simulated backup/restore to check a profiles settings
- Integration with Microsoft Windows Task Scheduler to help schedule backups
- Copied files can be verified to guarantee files copied correctly
- Minimize to tray
- HTML now used for log file, and log file more detailed and simpler to read
- Log files can be displayed automatically after backup/restore
- Double-click configuration
- Profiles can be sorted on any column
- Empty directories automatically deleted
- Profiles can be renamed and copied
- Media can be ejected after profile is executed
Version 1.x (October 2003)
- Original version
Introducing SyncBack
SyncBackSE has the following great benefits over its freeware namesake:
Copy locked and/or open files
A completely new FTP engine
'Fast Backup' option that can substantially increase backup speed
New variables to specify source and destination
Compression filter to increase compression performance
Smarter directory creation
Faster directory scanning
Improved FTP performance due to the new engine
New progress bar
Support for one-time-passwords
Support for MODE Z compression
Support for XCRC command (so files can be verified)
Support for new FTP extensions, e.g. MLSD
Better firewall/NAT support (external IP address and port ranges)
Learn more about SyncBackSE.
SyncBackSE at 2BrightSparks (Internet connection required)
All Contents: 2BrightSparks Pte Ltd ⌐ 2003-2006