One-way synch job not deleting from destination

[DnlPbl]

Hey Barry,

I have a one-way synch job which is intended to clone content on a hard drive to another folder on the same hard drive.
Excluded file types aside, I expected this job to exactly clone the source content. Accordingly, I thought if a file is deleted from the source it's counterpart should be purged from the destination, when the job is subsequently run. But i'm seeing mixed results:

1) I noticed that deleted source content persisted in the destination, despite the job running numerous times since the deletion(s).

2) This job is normally run automatically via windows task scheduler. After noticing the problem, I ran it manually and some of the data persisting in the destination was deleted by the job.

3) I checked the job properties and saw that at least some of the persisting content was listed in the "Selected for backup" section. Some of these listed files were deleted from the source at least six weeks ago and this job is run many times each day.

I'm quite sure this job worked correctly in the past.
Here are some relevant settings.
In job settings - "Copy new and changed files (Older or Newer)".
In auto run options - "Remove deleted files from destination".
Command line parameters in task - tried "Jobname|F" and "Jobname|CF".

Using:
Version - 2.3.0.295
MS Windows XP SP2 (Build 2600)

Thanx

[Barry]

Does this go wrong with version 2.4? I will try some clone scenario's, but this may take a few days. If you have a scenario that always goes wrong this will help.

What are you cloning to what destination? This will help be duplicate your backup job here.

Barry

[Barry]

This has been corrected in our copy of AISBackup and will be uploaded as a pre-release version as soon as possible.

Would you like to test it before pre-release?

The following statement will be added to the version history:

Disk to disk copy and synchronize jobs: If a file name is selected for backup and the file subsequently deleted from the source folder the file would not be selected for deletion from the destination folder. If a folder is selected for copy and then deleted from the source the destination files would not be selected for deletion, or in the case of both way synchronization jobs new files in the destination folders (of the deleted source folder) would not have been selected to copied from the destination to source folder.

Barry

[DnlPbl]

The updates sound great. No need to test it before pre-release, unless you prefer that I do.

Thanx

[Barry]

There is a slight delay in the release of 2.4.1 so I expect a pre-release version will be uploaded some time during the next couple of weeks.

Barry

[Barry]

Pre Release 2.5 has bee uploaded which contains a fix for the synchronisation problem. Please let me konw if this works okay.

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/aisbackupbeta.php

Barry

[DnlPbl]

Hey Barry,

I installed the pre release and tried it.
When the synch job auto runs from windows task scheduler, it still does not delete the persisting files.
However, when the synch job runs directly within AISBackup, it does prompt to delete persisting the files, except files within a subfolder of a folder selected for synching.

Also, I created new blank text file in one of the destination folders of the synch job. This file is not and never was in the counterpart source folder. The results for this scenario are just as described above. when AISBackup is autorun, this file also persists in the destination folder. When the job is run directly, AISBackup prompts for deletion of the file.

Sorry to disapoint.

[Barry]

Thank you for the feedback!

Did you set the option to delete destination files which do not exist on the source?

Manage Backup / Auto Run This Copy Job (MS Task Scheduler) / Advanced Schedule Options / Remove deleted files from destination

I think the Remove deleted files from destination should be copied to the 'non-advanced' option as it could be easily missed.

What I did:

Set-up a job to one way copy files from C:\USBStick to Q:\ (Actually when creating the jon AISBackup complained that the destination contained files (which it does), this is not appropriate for copy jobs and will be removed, I clicked Continue.

C:\USBStick contains 5 files and one folder containing 5 files.

I ran the copy and this was duplicated on Q:\ as expected

I then created a file under Q:\, Q:\folder and a new folder containing 1 files, all three should be candidates for deletion. I also created 1 file in C:\USBStick, which should be copied to Q:\USBStick. Running the job via the interactive interface: The new file was copied and all three new files on the destination were marked as candidates for deletion.

I then setup a schedule for 'Now' + 2 minutes and set the Remove deleted files from destination option. I manually deleted the 'new' file from the destination to create the same conditions.

The job ran and the one file as copied and the three files removed as expected.

I also tried all of the above to a sub folder on Q:\ with the same result.

Please document the situation which does not work so that I may duplicate the problem here.

Barry

[DnlPbl]

I added the "C" parameter and now it works except for the subfolder I mentioned. I'm pretty sure the "C" parameter was previously in that task, but I removed it, and that's probably when the deletion stopped working. What caused the confusion was seeing this in help.

"C Clear the Backup Contents File before, therefore backup everything, not just the changed files."

It looks like that needs correction.

Anyway, files not present in selected source folders are now correctly deleted from their counterpart destination. However, a subfolder and its contents persist. Any thoughts?

Thanx

[Barry]

Thanks for the reply!

"C Clear the Backup Contents File before, therefore backup everything, not just the changed files."

The documentation needs changing for copy jobs,

When I test this the destination folders and files are deleted from the destination. Please document the names of some of these files and folders so that I may duplicate your problem here.

Here are the files and folders I used in my test:

Code: Select all

C:\USBStick\SAGE0706.001
C:\USBStick\SAGEBACK.001
C:\USBStick\sageback.999
C:\USBStick\On Source\SAGE0706.001
C:\USBStick\On Source\SAGEBACK.001
C:\USBStick\On Source\sageback.999

After running the copy job I added the following files and folders to the destination:

Code: Select all

Q:\USBStick\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
Q:\USBStick\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
Q:\USBStick\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document (2).doc
Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document.doc

I then added, to the source folder:

Code: Select all

C:\USBStick\New Text Document.txt 

I ran AISBackup interactively and the 'New Text Document.txt' file was copied and all of the above 'extras' on the destination were selected for deletion, I did not delete them as I wanted to test the auto-run option.

I removed the new copy of Q:\USBStick\New Text Document.txt and set-up an auto run job.

Here is the log file, actually there is an error because AISBackup attempts to delete files from a folder it has already deleted:

Code: Select all

21:24:03	SSTART	Backup Session 1 Auto Run:  Started on 15 October 2007 at 21:24:03 Version: 2.5 (304)
21:24:03	INF	Run Time Parameters: [CYYYYYYY]
21:24:03	INF	User Account: Barry
21:24:03	INF	Creating Session: 1
21:24:03	STAT	Files Selected For Copy: 1 (0.00 MB)
21:24:03	STAT	Already Backed up: 9
21:24:03	STAT	Excluded From Copy: No files or folders have been excluded.
21:24:03	INF	Creating Folders: Preserving Original Short Name.
21:24:03	INF	Finished Creating Folders.
21:24:03	COPY	Copied: Q:\USBStick\New Text Document.txt
21:24:03	DEL	Deleted Folder: Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Folder\
21:24:03	DEL	Deleted Folder: Q:\USBStick\New Folder\
21:24:03	DELDEF	Deletion Deferred: Q:\USBStick\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document (2).doc
21:24:03	DELDEF	Deletion Deferred: Q:\USBStick\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
21:24:03	DEL	Deleted: Q:\USBStick\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
21:24:03	DELDEF	Deletion Deferred: Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document (2).doc
21:24:03	DELDEF	Deletion Deferred: Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Folder\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
21:24:03	DEL	Deleted: Q:\USBStick\On Source\New Microsoft Word Document.doc
21:24:03	RESULT	1 Files copied.
21:24:03	SESSEND	Copy Finished on: 15 October 2007 at 21:24:03

Clearly you have an error in your copy job that is why I showed you what I did in detail so that you may show me the differences in your file layout, or perhaps the auto run version of AISBackup on you PC is not 2.5?

What is also strange is that the log file, above, show AISBackup lining up folders and the files within those folders for deletion so should have deleted the files twice

Barry