FoldersSynchronizer

Conflicts:

• Picture 1: The Conflict panel.

• Picture 2: The Conflict Ask panel. If you marked the check-box "Ask", during the sync or backup (if the task has not been launched by the timer), you will be shown this panel. Here you will be able to make your choise in case of a given conflict. Also, you will be able to open and inspect the content of the two files (clicking on the "eye" icon) and to reveal them in the Finder. In case the task is a sync and if both the files exist you will be able to invert the directions of the copy (clicking on the orange/violet arrow icon).

• Go to the “Conflicts” window choosing the “Conflicts” item from the “Option” menu, or clicking on the “Y” icon on the console. You will be shown the picture 1 aside.

With this feature you can tell FS how to behave in case of conflicts.
A conflict can occur when FS is going to delete or replace a file which has something new since the last sync/backup. "Something new" means that the file FS is going to delete has been modified or it has just been created after the last sync/backup. The conflicts are the following:

a - Backup:
1: if both the files have been modified after the last backup and the source file is the most recent.
User's choises: skip, replace destination (ask or not).
2: if a destination file has a more recent modification date than its related source file.
User's choises: skip, replace destination (ask or not).
b - Exact Backup:
1: if after the last exact backup a destination file has been modified, and its related source file has been deleted.
2: if after the last exact backup an item has been added to a destination folder, and its related source parent folder has been deleted.
User's choises: skip, delete destination (ask or not).
c - Sync:
1: if both the files have been modified after the last synchronization.
User's choises: skip, copy the most recent (ask or not).
d - Exact Sync:
1: if after the last exact sync a file has been modified, and its specular file has been deleted.
2: if after the last exact sync a file has been added to a folder, and its specular parent folder has been deleted.
User's choises: copy back the file, delete the file (ask or not).

In any of these 7 cases (grouped in four) the first choise makes FS behave such a way to execute a standart backup or a standard sync.

If you mark the check-box "Ask", you will be asked by a dialog window for choosing the proper behaviour for any conflict met. With this dialog (see picture 2 aside) you will be able to see the pathnames of the two files, their modification and backup dates, you will be able to:

Open the files with their application and inspect their content.
Reveal the files in the Finder.
In case of sync and if both the files exist, you will be able to invert the direction of the copy (source-destination to destination-source and viceversa).
Skip these files or continue the sync/backup.

If the Sync/Backup had been launched by a timer (or by the Sync&Quit timer), FS would not display the dialog for asking, but it will behave as specified by the radio-buttons in the Conflicts panel.

We kindly invite you to read the following sample.
A sample about the Exact Sync (case "d2" above): let's suppose you have a subfolder "A" either in the main source folder and in the main destination folder. Both the folders "A" contain the files "y" and "z". You have already "exact synchronized" earlier the main folders. Now, if you delete the subfolder "A" (and its content) from the main source folder, and your colleague adds a file "x" to the destination subfolder "A" (or modifies here an existing file), FS at the next "Exact Sync" shouldn't know what to do.
Since it's an Exact Sync it could decide to delete the destination folder "A" too. Many sync software use to do that. If so, you should lose the file "x" that your colleague created inside the destination folder "A". Forever.
Other hand, if instead of deleting the destination folder "A" (and its content), FS copied the whole destination folder "A" back to the source folder (with the files "x", "y" and "z"), you could not agree, because you want the file "y" and "z" deleted from your disks.
Thus you have to define the proper behaviour. You have two choises:

Copy the file: If you choosed to "Copy the file", FS will create back the source folder "A", then it will copy back only the file "x" from the destination to the source folder "A", then it will delete the file "y" and "z" from the destination folder "A". The result is that both the main source and destination folders now contain the folder "A" containing the file "x" only. Thus FS behaves adding "your" action to "your colleague's" action. Clever & Safe!
Delete the file: If you choosed to "Delete the file", FS will delete the whole destination folder "A" (with the files "x", "y" and "z").
Also, if you mark the check-box "Ask", and the Sync/Backup has not been launched by a timer, you will be asked, during the Sync/Backup, for choosing the proper behaviour for any conflict met.

The PDF User manual contains more detailed information.