Exlude folders only in one direction?

[Spitfire_ch]

This may either be a bug or a misunderstanding from my side:

I try to synchronize my USB stick (A) with a folder on my hard drive (F). A contains a Folder (_Archived Items) which I don't want to be copied to F, so I added it to "exclude folders". When I know use Backup A to F, it works perfectly: all folders except _Archived Items are synchronized. When I do the opposite, however, by synchronizing F to A (with exclude folders still checked), Synchronize it wants to delete the _Archived Items on A.

Is this intended that way? If yes, how can I make synchronize it ignore a folder in both directions?

Thank you very much and best regards

- spit

edit: Correction, I just realized that F also contained a Folder names _Archived Items, with different content. Once I deleted it, Synchronize it no longer tried to delete the folder on A.

It is still strange, though, that while it was there, Synchronize it tried to delete the files in _Archived Items on A. Should it not have tried to copy the files in _Archived Items from F to A?

[grigsoft]

That's strange - in my tests excluded folder is always skipped, as it should. If you can reproduce this behaviour, maybe you can make snapshots from both folders for me to test?

[Spitfire_ch]

Ok, I just tried, it's reproducable, but I am not sure whether it's a bug. It happens only, if both, the target and the source contain a folder of the same name but different content, and you exclude that folder, but only in the target and not in the source. When you exclude it from the source or from both, it will ignore it. However, if you only exclude it from the target, then it tries to synchronize the folder with the source.

As I said, I am not sure whether this is a bug - maybe "exclude folders" is intended to work with the source only and have no effect on the target. But in a way I think it would be more straightforward, if "excluded folders" are simply ignored, no matter whether they are at the source or at the target destination.

You can easily simulate the situation by just creating a folder of the same name but different content at the source and target destination. If you still require them, I could of course also try to send you the snapshots.

Best regards
- spitfire

[grigsoft]

Yes, I have tried that but could not reproduce this. How do you define excluded folder - by partial name, like "_Archived Items" in your case? Or by full name?

[Spitfire_ch]

I just browse to the folder and choose it. So I guess it's full name, but I can check again when I am home.

It's strange it behaves differently for you and me. Since I don't have "_archived items" anymore, I artificially created a similar setup, as described, and again it did it. Would you like me to take screen shots of the setup, Synchronize It! settings and the outcome?

Are you really using a setting where a folder of the same name occurs at two different locations, and has a different content? Something like

\source\Folder A
contains 1.doc, 2.doc, 3.doc

\target\Folder A
contains 3.doc, 4.doc, 5.doc

To the exclude list, add:
\target\Folder A but DON'T add \source\Folder A

In my case, it would try to copy 1.doc and 2.doc and delete 4.doc and 5.doc (depending on the action, of course).

Best regards
- spitfire

[grigsoft]

Ah, that's what I thought. When you add full path to exclude folders, it verifies just this folder. You can add just "Folder A" to skip it in both cases. But I will rethink this over - maybe there is a logical mistake here.

[Spitfire_ch]

I see, I didn't know that you can just add the name of the folder without the path, that's good to know, thanks for this hint!

In terms of adding the full path, it would seem logical if an excluded folder is ignored, independent of whether it's the target or the source. But then again, maybe this is just me

Best regards
- spitfire