What is FreeFileSync

FreeFileSync is a folder comparison and synchronization software that creates and manages backup copies of all your important files. Instead of copying every file every time, FreeFileSync determines the differences between a source and a target folder and transfers only the minimum amount of data needed. FreeFileSync is Open Source software, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Web site and download

Web Site: https://freefilesync.org/

From this page you can access

• Tutorials
• The application Download page
• The User Forum (for help topics)
• The user Manual

Before use

Use an external USB storage device and ensure it has enough capacity to store the files on your computer.

It is recommended to format the USB device using the NTFS file system. This will ensure that large files will be included in the sync process.

You can check each folder size on your computer using Windows File explorer and right click on each relevant folder to be synchronised. Then click Properties to view the folder size (capacity). Add these together to get an idea of the size of external USB drive capacity that is needed.

The folders to be synced may include all of the following:

• Desktop
• Documents
• Downloads
• Music
• Pictures

Running FreeFileSync

After running FreeFileSync for the first time a configuration file is created with the settings and folder pairs you created during the first run. You are then prompted to save this file. I recommend saving this to the Desktop so that next time you run it you just need to double click the icon on the desktop.

I would give the saved configuration file any name that helps you understand what the icon on the desktop will be used for.

Using Volume Name instead of Drive Letter

I recommend replacing the drive letter on the right hand side with the volume name of the USB device. Storage devices are allocated drive letters by the system and this will avoid issues when you have multiple storage devices connected to your computer.

In the target side file path replace the drive letter (E.G. “D:”) with the Volume name (E.G. “[Integral]”). Enclose the volume name in square brackets (“[]”). Quotation marks ” are for clarity only and should be omitted in the file path.

To change the volume name of the drive. Open File explorer > This PC or Destop > Right click on the drive and click on Properties. Under the General tab type in or change the name accordingly.

The interface

The interface can be a bit daunting as there is a lot of information on the screen. However once all the folder pairs are setup and the settings created then there are just 1 or 2 buttons to click to perform the backup/ Synchronisation.

Click Compare to get an idea of what will be synced.

Click Synchronise to perform the sync.

Settings

Clicking on either one of the icons (blue cog, Filter, green cog) brings up the same Synchronisation settings dialogue for all three of these items.

Here your initial setting of your first folder pair is set into the item called All folder pairs. From here, if you wish, you can make individual changes  to each of the folder pairs.

Backup

Most users will simply want a BACKUP of their files and not a synchronisation. The recommended settings for a backup is as follows:

The above image shows the settings as follows:

With the files on the left hand side (your computer)…

• Copy new item to the right
• Update item to the right

Difference (Action)

• Update right item

With the files on the right hand side (your USB backup storage)…

• (Item is newer) Do Nothing
• (Item does not exist) Do Nothing

Unlike some other sync programs where the folder pairs are added on the left hand side and each folder can be synced separately, FreeFileSync lists the Session name on the left hand side and it is only possible to sync all folder pairs together.

This setup process just needs to be done once.

The first Sync process will always take a long time depending on how big your user data (files) is on your computer and the speed of your USB connection. This could be anything from a few minutes to a few hours.

When the process is run the second time and subsequent times, only new or updated files will be copied to the external USB device and this should then only take a few seconds or minutes.

Further Notes

Close all applications before using FreeFileSync.

Running the FreeFileSync configuration file (created above) automatically performs a compare routine. However, when you run the Synchronise process and  you have some files open (e.g, Microsoft Outlook or if a document is open in Microsoft Word) it will cause read errors saying that the “File is locked by another process.” Be sure to close all applications and then run the Compare and Synchronise routines again.

Error Messages

If there is an error message after the Sync process such as “The recycle bin is not available for {enter file path here}”.

The fix for this would be to set deletions to be permanent. This setting can be found in the config settings of the application.

Further help

Web Site: https://freefilesync.org/

From this page you can access

• Tutorials
• The application Download page
• The User Forum (for help topics)
• The user Manual