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Settings

Here the various folderPair sync options are explained.

General

  • Name: Unique name of your choice.
  • Sync type: The type of sync.
    • To left folder: Files will be transferred to left folder. Files will not be transferred to right folder.
    • Two-way: Files will both be transferred in both directions from left to right folder.
    • To right folder: Files will be transferred to right folder. Files will not be transferred to left folder.
  • Left account: The account to use when selecting the left folder.
  • Left folder: The left folder to use.
  • Right account: The account to use when selecting the right folder.
  • Right folder: The right folder to use.

Sync options

  • Sync deletions: Configure if deletions are to be synced/mirrored. Use with care! Disabled by default. Use with care.
  • Exclude from sync all: Select if you want to exclude this folderPair from syncing when pressing [Sync all] button on Sync Status screen.
  • Do not create empty folders: Check this if empty folders should not be created when syncing.
  • Disable checksum calculation: Checksums are calculated for device files to determine if they have changed since previous sync of folderPair. This can make the sync take longer if you have many files configured to sync. If you choose to disable checksum calculation, then only the modified time of the file will be used to check if it has changed since the previous sync.
  • Disable file-size check: You can disable file-size check if you need this for some reason. Use with care.
  • Disable check of free disk space: FolderSync will attempt to detect if your phycial device (Android or PC) has enough free space for sync. Disable if this causes issues.
  • Do deletions after file transfers: You can choose in the sync if you want it to any deletion only after file transfers are completed.
  • Use temp-file scheme: If you want any file transfers to write to a temporary file first, and only if that is succesfully rename to intended file name (overwriting original).
  • Transfers priority: Set which files should be transferred first. Default is the order in which FolderSync has found the file in the folder tree.
  • Overwrite old files: Choose what to do if a file already exist at target. Default setting is to overwrite the old file, so the newest file is used, which would the setting for most to use if running a normal sync. Some people may only want a file to transfer once and then not be updated on changes, in that case set this to never.
  • If conflicting modifications: Choose what to do if a conflicting modification is detected. A conflicting modification is one where both the source and target file has been changed since last recorded sync. Default is to skip file, which will result in sync warnings.

Monitor device folder

  • Instant sync: Instant sync on change. Detects changes in configured left folder on local device storage and may not work with external SD card or Android/data sub folders. To work the folderPair must be configured to sync on a schedule. Any detected changes to folder/files will trigger a normal sync using the default schedule connection settings (if set) - if no default schedule is set sync will run only if Wi-Fi is connected.

One-way sync options

  • Move files to target folder: After syncing of files, the source files are deleted. Use with care! Disabled by default.
  • Only resync source files if modified: Enable this option if you want to be able to delete files in target folder without these files being synced from source again. For example if you sync pictures from your device to a cloud folder, and want to be able to keep them on device and delete them in the cloud folder without them being re-synced later by FolderSync from the device.
  • If deletion is enabled also allow deletion of non-synced files in target folder: Enable this option for one-way sync if you want to delete any files in the target folder which are not in the source folder, even if they have not been previously synced. Use with care. Only affects files, not folders.

Backup options

  • Copy files to time-stamped folder: With the corresponding naming pattern field this can be used to use FolderSync for backing up files. Each sync will backup all files to a new subfolder in the target folder named accordingly to the naming-pattern configured. This can thus only be used with one-way sync type.
  • Naming pattern:
    • SimpleDateFormat Pattern Syntax: The pattern must follow Java's SimpleDateFormat syntax. Reference
    • Literal Text: Use single quotes (') to escape literal text that should not be interpreted as date format characters
    • Folder Separators: Use forward slashes (/) to create nested folder structures
    • Example: “yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss ‘Pictures’” will result in a backup folder named something like “2021-01-02 12.05.22 Pictures”. Don’t include the double-quotes when entering format in the app.
    • Limitations: Resulting folder name has to be allowed for the target file system or sync will fail.

Sort options

Experimental

  • Sort files in target folder: Flatten source file structure into target folder and sort into folders as defined by sorting type and folder pattern. For file extension sorting, there will be a folder for each extension type found. If EXIF Original Datetime is selected, and it cannot be found/extracted, the sorting function will fallback to file last modified time of the file. EXIF Datetime can only be extracted for files located device FolderSync is installed on.
    • Existing Folders: If any folder in the path already exists, it will be reused (not recreated)
    • Collisions: Filenames will be renamed with appending original path (without slashes) if multiple files with same file name is found in source folder structure. If you remove a file with same name as another file in sorting mode the behavior is undefined on subsequent syncs and can cause issue, so avoid duplicate file names in sorting mode.
    • Experimental: This feature is highly experimental, use with care.
  • Folder pattern (datetime): Used only for EXIF Original Datetime or last modified sorting.
    • SimpleDateFormat Pattern Syntax: The pattern must follow Java's SimpleDateFormat syntax. Reference
    • Literal Text: Use single quotes (') to escape literal text that should not be interpreted as date format characters
    • Folder Separators: Use forward slashes (/) to create nested folder structures
    • Example: “yyyy/MM/dd” will result in files being sorted folders with that structure.
    • Limitations: Resulting folder name has to be allowed for the target file system or sync will fail.