TNCS-0032 – ChronoSync 4.6.5 Features and Fixes
Created: December 15, 2015
ChronoSync 4.6.5 contains two new major options: a “Resolve aliases only at root level” option and an “Auto-exclude new items” option. Along with all the other inclusion and exclusion options already available in ChronoSync, you are able to control exactly the files and folders you want to backup or synchronize. To learn more about controlling the scope of a backup or synchronization read the Guide How to Backup Specific Files & Folders.
FEATURES
'Root Level Only' Alias Resolution Option
This option allows you to set up a folder of aliases and have the files and folders that they reference copied over to the destination, but aliases deeper in the folder hierarchy will be copied as aliases. This is extremely useful if you have a set of files and folders that you want to back up but are scattered throughout your Mac’s hard drive.
For example if you are working on a project and want to combine or backup all the files from the project, you can do this using the Root Level Alias option. If the project contains Word, Pages, Excel, Image, PDF, and other files that are located in different folders just create a folder with aliases to the folders or files you are using on the project. Next select the folder containing these aliases as a target in ChronoSync and then select an empty folder on the destination. ChronoSync will then copy and maintain a set of all the files on the destination.
When you use this option with an alias of a folder it will copy all the contents of the folder to the destination. For example if you wanted to backup three important folders in your Documents folder just create a folder with an alias to each of those important folders, set up your ChronoSync Document, and all the files contained in those folders will be backed up.
'Auto-Exclude New Items' Feature that Includes a 'Root Level Only' Option
This option excludes any new files or folders from getting backed up or synchronized. For example, if you set up a ChronoSync document to backup a folder that contains image files but are continuously adding image files that you do not want backed up then this option will exclude the added image files and only backup the original image files.
When you use this option at root level only, it will not include any new files or folder added to the target folder. For example, if you are synchronizing a folder but don’t want any new folders added to the root level to be part of the synchronization but you do want new folders or files deeper in the hierarchy to be synchronized, then this option will do just that.
File Not Found Error Handling
If a file-not-found error occurs while processing an item, the synchronizer will ignore the error if a refresh confirms the item does not exist on both targets.
File not found errors are common when running ChronoSync while actively working on a Mac. They are typically caused by temporary cache files created by the app that the user is running. These files exist briefly while ChronoSync is scanning but disappear before ChronoSync can copy them, In almost all cases these errors can be ignored. So instead of pestering the user with meaningless errors ChronoSync now verifies that the file is in fact not there and if so does not report the error to the user. A message is posted to the log calling attention to this anomaly.
Bootable Roll-Back Pre-Determination Setting Set to 'Copy'
Beginning with this version of ChronoSync, when you set up a bootable backup, any roll-back errors will automatically copy. A date roll-back means that the file has changed since the last sync but now has an older modification date. It is more of a warning regarding the file than an error. Since date roll-backs usually occur with bootable backups, and it is completely safe to proceed and copy them, we have adjusted the setting automatically so the user does not have to adjust the setting afterwards. If you prefer to flag date roll-backs as errors, you can change the setting in the “Reporting & Error Handling” group in the “Options” panel.
Enabling FMAudit
Holding the OPTION key down while manually invoking a sync operation will enable FMAudit for that sync operation. This option gives the user a quick way to generate an FM audit report. This is a diagnostic tool that is only needed in special circumstances. You may be asked to perform this procedure by our technical support staff if you are encountering an esoteric problem. Previously you were required to modify hidden files within the application in order to obtain these diagnostics.
Added the "Allow SmartScan" and "Aggressive Mode" Options to the Removable Media Target Options Sheet
ChronoSync v4.6.4 added the ability to use SmartScan on removable media such as disk images (as long as the media supports it). However, it did not provide the ability to control SmartScan on a per-target basis. Now you can by clicking “Options” for your removable-media target.
Updated Online Help
Added explanation of the new features in English, French, German and Japanese.
FIXES
- Fixed several problems with the custom file selector dialog that is presented when selecting a file on a ChronoAgent (local or remote) target.
- If a custom accessory view w/auto layout constraints were specified, a constraint violation would occur on 10.9 and many controls would not be visible.
- If a custom accessory view was provided but then the same file selector was displayed again without an accessory view, the standard accessory view would not be visible.
- Fixed a bug when restoring a file from the archive whereby the test to see if the destination path existed was factoring the package handling setting of the target.
- Thus if the destination path was the root of a package, and the target being restored to was not dissecting packages, an error would be generated.
- Fixed a bug whereby archive handling was not being temporarily disabled when restoring a file from the archive.
- At best this could have resulted in silly behavior like the file being replaced by a restore getting archived.
- At worst, this would generate an archive error if the target being restored to didn’t maintain an archive.
- Fixed an agent communication bug whereby errors generated when obtaining the results of an asynchronous command that itself did NOT generate an error would not pass up the call chain.
- This could happen if the result data were too large to be encapsulated in a datagram such as when collecting the contents of an enormous folder.
- The most significant side effect was that if a single folder contained an enormous amount of files (on the order of 500,000+), it would appear empty to ChronoSync.
- Fixed a bug whereby if a folder enumeration error occurred on a non-empty, leaf sync node, the sync processing would not flag & respond to the error.
- Fixed an auto-layout bug that could clip the “When deleting files” label.
- Fixed a bug whereby changing targets on a previously run synchronization could result in a crash.
- Fixed a bug whereby folders that have the UAppend, UChg, SAppend or SChg BSD flags set would not have their modification dates preserved.
- Fixed a bug whereby a sync document that was maintaining an archive, but then had archiving disabled, would still factor in the maintenance scan count in the progress reporting.
- e.g. if the former archive required scanning 200,000 files, the total file count displayed would be 200,000 files greater than the actual count and the progress bar would “jump” at the end.
- The bug is fixed but it will take one full sync to realize that the maintenance scan is no longer part of the sync.
- Fixed a bug that could misrepresent the “% full” value displayed in a target’s setup pane if the target volume were extremely large.
- Fixed a bug whereby if ChronoSync need to update an alias file after it had been copied, it would not do so using bookmark-style aliases.
- Fixed a problem that occurred when renaming files on certain NAS devices.
REVISION HISTORY
December-15-2015 – Created.