Jay & Steve - Thanks again. I will get GoodSync trial downloaded/installed within the next few days and then play around with it. If I have questions, I may get back with you. If I really like it, then I will purchase it and discard the troublesome SyncToy.

Steve, I wondered what those SyncToy dat files were.....those with the long string of characters. Now I know. Thanks.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

I believe that you will end up with GoodSync. No need at all to mess with Task Scheduler.

Since you want to run on a schedule you will find GoodSynd to be much more flexible. The following image shows my schedule. GoodSync runs every day except Sunday at 2:00 AM. It could just as easily be set to run every other day of every other week of every third month.

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Thanks, Jay. And I really don't want to mess with Task Scheduler any more. In researching my recent problem, I saw on the internet where many other users had problems trying to run SyncToy using Scheduler. And solutions that worked for one user didn't work for another user. General consensus was that Microsoft had really messed up SyncToy and no longer cared.

Although my batch solution worked, I wasn't really sure why until you mentioned that it probably had higher privileges than the cmd file approach.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

@Jay or Steve -

I have my first GoodSync question. I tried to find the answer in the manual, but in some areas the manual is difficult for me to understand. So I thought I would ask the experts.

I am only interested in doing backups (left to right), so I defined and synced three jobs. Now I want to automate this process. I know how to set up a schedule for each of my jobs. But I would like to group my three jobs (which I have done) and then set up a schedule for this group, rather than having to schedule each of the three jobs individually.

So is there a way to schedule a group of jobs? Thanks in advance.....

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

I just created a Group and added my current syncs. I don't see an option to automate a Group. However I THINK that you can select multiple Jobs and set automation on all at the same time. When I selected multiple Jobs the Option choice on a right click was grayed out but that may be due to already having each Job set. You select multiple jobs by holding CTRL and clicking each.

To be honest I have not used Groups so am not sure. Steve may be able to do better.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Actually having Tuesday being '2' instead Tuesday is just more efficient. Still I can see your point in a way though, just to save you time which takes you less time; '2,4,6' or 'Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday'? It also makes a chance of a typo less.

Think about entering a date on a web site. Does the site want 'December 19, 2017' or does it want '12/19/2017'?

I really don't know but the ability to select a group of jobs but not then being able to click on Auto MAY be due to auto already being set for one of the jobs. Sorry that I cannot offer more but I use GoodSync in a rather simple way. I sync entire drives/partitions from my main system to my second system. This includes three jobs. Personally I have not even looked at groups as I don't want to all three syncs at the same time. My thinking is that this would just complicate things taking more system resources to do multiple jobs at the same time. I just schedule my syncs an hour apart and let it go. However our situations are, I believe, a bit different. The two systems that I sync as backup (left to right) are on mostly 24/7. I think that you turn yours off.

To be perfectly honest, even if it was a simple click to do, I doubt that I'd run multiple syncs at the same time.

As an aside it is possible to run all syncs at the same time manually. Just right click on 'All Jobs' and select to 'Analyze and sync'.

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I only recently delved into scheduling with Goodsync and I have a number of individual jobs with their own schedules. Long story, but at my office we use an Access database that lives on a file server. The whole team uses this database. A few weeks ago it corrupted beyond repair. My last manual backup (using GoodSync) was just under a week old. We had to re-enter all changes that had been in the 4 workdays between the backup and the crash.
I created 2 backup jobs now that run hourly, 30 minutes offset from each other, for the same source folder, but different destinations. And then I created 5 more jobs to back up the database to 5 different locations (different for each of the 5 jobs)at the end of each workday. In theory, we can lose 30 minutes of work if the database crashes and we notice within an hour. If the 2 backups copy the corrupted database over, we roll back to the end of the previous workday.
Anyway, I've never investigated the ability to create a schedule for a group. Groups are actually a fairly recent addition to Goodsync, so I wouldn't be surprised if they add that feature down the road if it isn't already there.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

From my old SyncToy days, there are 5 folder pair (called jobs in GoodSync) that I want to backup daily, left to right. These are: Documents, Downloads, Favorites Bar, Pictures, and Trail Cameras. When SyncToy was working correctly, all five of these folder pair were updated automatically at 6:30am via Task Scheduler.

So in GoodSync I created a Group containing these same five jobs, which I now want to update daily at 6:30am. I was hoping that I could AutoRun the Group, but I can't figure out how to do that. And I don't want to run the five jobs manually, or I probably would have just stayed with SyncToy.

However, I guess I could individually set up each of the five jobs to run at the same time. But then I have to remember to configure the On Schedule screen to be the same for all five jobs. At least I think I can schedule more than one job to run at the same time.....I guess that remains to be seen.

Jay, my Win 10 computer stays on just about 24/7; however I'm not backing up one computer system to another as you do. I am simply trying to automate the backup of my data files (i.e., the same five jobs listed above) to an external drive.

I'll keep playing with GoodSync until I get there. If I can't, then I won't purchase the program and I will revert to my SyncToy batch file within Task Scheduler, which is now working like it should.

Thanks to Jay & Steve for all your input, and for sharing with me how you perform backups.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Since you are not backing up entire drives/partitions I would think it easier to just set up all of the 5 folders as one job... Am I missing something?

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I don't know Jay, as the concept of jobs is sorta new to me. All 5 folders are going to the same external drive, but to different folders on that drive. For example:
C:\Users\BB\Documents is going to J:\GoodSyncTrial\Documents
C:\Users\BB\Favorites\Links is going to J:\GoodSyncTrial\Favorites Bar

So I'm not skilled enough yet to know how to do this as one job. Maybe I can figure it out tomorrow?

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

If all of the files reside within the \Users\BB\ folder and all will sync to J:\GoodSyncTrial\ you can use exclusions/filters. Exclude all folders and their contents on the left side, \Users\BB, that you don't want copied.

-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I gotta think about that Steve. Most all of my data files reside within \Users\BB, so I think that means that I would have to exclude a lot of folders that I don't want copied......could be time consuming and prone to errors on my part. Since I want the folders organized on the right side, I prefer to simply select the folders I want copied, and to where I want them copied on the right side.

Or maybe I am misunderstanding what you are suggesting.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

@ Jay & Steve -

I submitted a support ticket to GoodSync, asking them if I could schedule a Group. Here was their reply:
Unfortunately, there is no possibility to schedule all jobs in a group at once.
You need to schedule your jobs individually.
You can analyze and sync all jobs in a group by Analyze/Sync commands from context menu. In this case all jobs will be analyzed and synced one by one.

Not exactly the answer I wanted to hear, since easy automation is the solution I'm looking for and the reason I'm looking at GoodSync to replace SyncToy.

However, I will give GoodSync support staff a kudo.....they answered my question in less than an hour. I never see Microsoft doing that, lol.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

OK, here is what I've discovered. Please remember that I've not been using GoodSybc for all that long and just set up my jobs and didn't look much further.

1) Groups are just to organize. Say that you had three image folders that you wanted on three different jobs. Set up the three jobs then add them to a Group called Pictures. Will do nothing as to running the syncs but will help organize your job list.

2) I tried setting up two test drives without setting a schedule. I then selected the two to see if I could set up a common schedule. It would not allow.

3) I set up one job and set a schedule. I then cloned the job. Sadly it cloned everything except the schedule. I was a bit surprised about that.

The reason that the above options are probably missing is that, while possibly handy, are not needed. I still say that the best method is to just select the folders that you want to sync all within one job. I think the issue here is that a setup step is being missed...

1) Start to set up a new job.

2) When you go to select the from (left) source make sure to check the box at the top of the dialog for multiple items. All folders will now have a checkbox so that you can pick and choose what folder are included in the sync. If you also check the box to show files you will have checkboxes to select or not individual files.


Note in the image the selected 'Cursors' folder. I unselected the assasin cursors which is noted by the red 'X'.

Using this method you can set up one job to cover everything on your system regardless of different folders and/or drives. However, while you can jump from drive to drive, I would suggest restricting one drive per job to keep things more organized. This is how I set up my jobs and it worked well for me. I have two jobs. One job is for my data drive and the other is for my media drive. I had to go with two jobs as the sync destinations are different. My main system data drive is one way backed up the data drive on my second system and the same for the media drive. End result is that my main system data and media drives are backed up, or cloned, to the second system daily. When my 6 TB media drives are full I'll set up another job the same way for my second 4 TB media drives.

And YES, the big white/silver and red thing in the screen shot is my mouse pointer. On a 42 inch screen I like a big pointer so I can find the thing.

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Jay, thank you so much for this "how to" email. I wish the GoodSync manual was that descriptive, including screen shots. But it is not.....like I said earlier, it looks/reads more like a programming manual, with absolutely no pictures.

Your comment "I think the issue here is that a setup step is being missed..." is absolutely correct. I did not check the box at the top of the dialog for multiple items, I guess because I wanted to set up each job to include all the files & subfolders within a given folder on the left side. For example, in the left folder called \BB\Documents, I wanted all the files & subfolders in this Documents folder to be copied to the right side. But using your example, now I see how to exclude selected items like Steve was talking about.

But item selection was never my concern at this point. I want simple automation for all the jobs I select. And having to schedule my jobs individually is not that convenient to me. So currently, GoodSync is not serving the purpose I had in mind. But maybe Steve is correct....since the concept of Groups only appeared in Version 10, maybe the GoodSync staff will eventually allow Group scheduling.

FYI, I cranked up my old computer running Win 7 Pro and ran Task Scheduler to see if SyncToyCmd.exe would execute without the (0x2) error code. And sure enough it did.....perfectly. So now I am going to carefully scrutinize the steps/scripts on my old Win 7 computer versus the ones on my new Win 10 computer, and see if I can figure out why Task Scheduler started throwing the SyncToy error codes beginning about a month ago.

Thanks again..........

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

If you select to include a folder, say your documents, all sub folders/files will be included unless you unselect. Now say that you want your documents and pictures. Just select both. You still just need to set up one destination folder as the sync will maintain the original folder structure within the destination folder. You don't need to deselect anything. You just select what you want.

I think I'm still missing something. Why do you need multiple jobs when you can select everything that you want in one job? If doing jobs from different source drives I would not want the same schedule as it would probably take longer than two as the jobs would 'fight' for drive access. If doing from a single source drive you can just select everything you want as one job.

Bottom line is that if it does not serve your purpose it does not.

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Jay, I understand what you are saying about selecting everything I want as one job. But the reality is that I am backing up folders/files from three different source drives, all going to an external drive. With SyncToy, I did this twice....weekly to an external drive always connected to my computer, and monthly to an external drive that I disconnect and remove from my house as a precaution.

The three source drives are my main C: drive, an external drive L: that contains all my animal photos/videos, and a small flash drive where I backup certain financial data as soon as it changes (e.g., a Lotus spreadsheet where I track my investments).

Until recently, SyncToy did all my weekly backups automatically via Task Scheduler. My monthly backups I performed manually (a one-click operation within SyncToy), since I didn't always bring that external drive back into the house on a regular schedule.

I know my methods may not be what you would do, but they have worked for me for many years. They worked until one of the Win 10 updates caused the Task Scheduler and SyncToy interface to malfunction.

At my age, change is not a good thing. Thus my desperate attempt to get SyncToy to once again work, especially now that I see that GoodSync may not be what I need/want.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

OK, I get it now.

With SyncToy you could get away with running all three syncs at the same time as they would execute in order, not really at the same time. With GoodSync, if the three are scheduled at the same time they actually will run at the same time. This would probably make the total sync take much longer.

Of course you could set up one job in GoodSync to do all three drives but it is possible that could cause issues if there are duplicate file names, not sure what would happen in that case. Also what you would be syncing from the three source drives would all go to the same destination drive which could make things difficult to find.

I now fully understand what you are doing and SyncToy just may be better for you. Since you already know that you can get SyncToy to work via your batch file solution you are probably good to go.

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Yes, I think that is what I am going to do. I also use File History, but it has sorta gotten out of hand and has consumed most of my 2 TB drive even though I am now only keeping files for one month. FH keeps adding folders to backup, even though I didn't request them. So I need to go in and clean things up, and I need to then specifically exclude the folders/files that I don't want backed up. As you know, I am a big believer in backing up my data files.....perhaps to the point of overkill. But it's hard to break old habits, lol.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Unfortunately I don't believe that there is a way to restrict the drive space used by File History as there is with System Restore. Still I can think of a possible work-a-round...

Partitioning drives is not that much recommended anymore but I still find it very useful in some cases of which this may be one. Personally I don't use File History but know that it is supposed to restrict itself according to the size of the drive. If you were to partition the target drive to include a partition that is sized for the maximum space you wanted to allocate File History should manage itself to work within that space. Actually, if I were to do this, I'd probably make the partition around 15-20% larger than what I actually wanted to use. I would think that File History would always manage itself to have free space on the target drive for 'overhead'. Going 10-20% larger than you actually want should cover this overhead and give you what you want as to size for File History.

Before asked my choice to not use File History has nothing to do with anything I find wrong with the system. I just don't need it as I have many copies of my data. I have my data synced between three systems so that is three copies. Each of the three systems also have Office 2016 installed so each have 1 TB of OneDrive storage. While not all data my music, pictures, etc. are backed up to OneDrive so I now have six copies. I also back up all my data to my router connected NAS drive making seven copies. LOL! Still think your backups are overkill?

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Nope. You appear to be understanding.
I suggest setting up the sync to sync your entire User folder left to right, where you create a parent folder on the right for your various backup folders.
Then run analyze.
Before you click Sync, you review the tree and right click each folder that you don't want synchronized and select "Exclude "x" folder.
You only need to do this once through the tree unless you add a new folder on the left that you don't want copied over to the right.
Once completed with the review, Synchronize.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Ah, reading further, you are backing up from multiple drives. I would surely set these up as individual jobs and create individual schedules for them to kick off. You can change the number jobs allowed to run in parallel from the default of 3 to 1, 2, or more. If they are set to start a few minutes apart, while the earliest job is executing, the other(s) will wait to start or run concurrently, depending on this setting in Program Options.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks for your input Steve, but at this point I'm not sure GoodSync is what I want/need, so I'm back working my SyncToy problem. I am carefully scrutinizing the Task Scheduler steps/scripts on my old Win 7 computer versus the ones on my new Win 10 computer. Everything works fine on my old Win 7 computer, so I want to see if I can figure out why Task Scheduler started throwing the SyncToy error code (0x2) beginning about a month ago on my new Win 10 computer.

One thing I immediately noticed is that I am running the 32-bit version of SyncToy on my new Win 10 computer, yet I am running the 64-bit version on my old Win 7 computer. I don't know when/how that happened, as both computers run the 64-bit version of the respective operating system. Do you think that might be the cause of my SyncToy automation problems on my Win 10 computer, i.e., the fact that I'm running the 32-bit version?

Thanks for any additional thoughts you, Jay or anyone might have.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

I'm at a loss... I thought that you already had SyncToy working fine on your Windows 10 system using your batch file solution. If this is, in fact, true what further 'stuff' do you need to do? You have a working system so why keep going?

Quit over thinking all this. You have a working solution on your Windows 10 system using your batch file solution. Quit wasting your time on other possibilities. You have a solution so just use it and go on to other projects.

Am I missing something?

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