Super Flexible File Synchronizer

• There is a forum for Super Flexible File Synchronizer here: www.backupcreations.com/forum/
  This is intended for general support questions, not for serious issues or bug reports. For those please email us directly as we want to take care of them as quickly as possible.

• Technical support is also available by email to support@superflexible.com. In special cases, you may also make a phone call but this will not usually result in a faster solution.

• Yes. To install it on the flash drive, you first need to install it normally on a computer where you can install software. Then, you can copy the program files from C:\Program Files\SuperFlexible to any folder on the flash drive. You don't need the files from the uninstaller (unins000.dat and unins000.exe).

• If one side is always the "model" and the other side is always the "mirror", i.e. you are copying only in one direction, then you can use Exact Mirror mode to synchronize deletions.

  If you want to run the profile in unattended mode, for example by running the scheduler, then you need to also give it explicit permission to delete the files. To do so, please edit the profile in Advanced Mode, go to the Safety->Unattended tab sheet and make sure that deletions are enabled. You may also want to remove the last checkmark, "Enable Special Safety Warnings", because these can prevent deletions from being carried out.

• Note that the Real-Time mode has its own setting for deletions.

  To enable deletions to work in real time, please edit the profile in Advanced Mode. Go to the "Schedule" settings category and to the Monitoring/Real-Time tab sheet. Click on the checkmark "Real-Time Synchronization". A dialog will pop up where you need to make sure that the checkmark "Process deletions when running in real-time" is chosen, and that the Safety Delay matches your requirements. Many users will just want to set it to 0.

• If you are working on both sides, and copying files in both directions, then you must use SmartTracking to detect and handle file deletions.

  When you choose it, you will see a separate dialog with a few options where you can specify how certain situations should be handled. SmartTracking can recognize these situations by keeping a database and comparing the current state of your folders with the last state stored in the database.

  You can set it to move the file into a folder for deleted files whenever it recognizes a deletion. This works similar to a recycle bin. It won't physically delete the file for safety reasons. You need to choose a folder for deleted files (one for each side of the sync). This folder should by outside of the hierarchy that you are syncing.

  For SmartTracking to work, you always need to use the same profile for syncing the same folders, because the database is specific to each profile, and the program must use the same database always. In addition, you need to start the profile on the same computer each time.

  Deletions will be recognized starting with the second synchronization after you turn on SmartTracking. During the first run, the database is built.

• Please make the checkmark "Follow NTFS Junction Points" on the tab sheet Filters in Advanced Mode.

• First, make sure you haven't chosen "Binary Comparison" on the tab sheet Comparison->More.
  In addition, if you are using "Process Security and Shares" on the Special tab sheet, make sure that in the pop-up dialog that appears when you click on that checkbox, you have not chosen "Update existing files" because that will be slow.

• There are various ways to speed up building the file listing. If you are using FTP, you can choose the recursive FTP Listing Command LIST -alR on the second tab sheet of the Internet dialog. If you are using SSH/SFTP and the server is a Linux/Unix type of server, you can try the "Recursive Listing" checkmark.

  If not using FTP, or if LIST -alR does not help, you can install the ExtremeSync Remote Service on the other computer to generate the file list remotely. The Remote Service is available for Windows and Mac.

  If you are just mirroring or backing up in one direction, you may be able to use the option "Cache Destination File List" from the Specials tab sheet. However this option means that any changes on the destination by another person or program are not seen by the software, because it always remembers the last state in its cache and never looks at the destination folders again.

  Finally, you can use Real Time Synchronization which simply copies new and changed files rather than comparing the two folder structures. However, it is recommended to also schedule a full run regularly to catch any files that may have been missed in real time. Also, Real Time changes are only detected on local drives and via LAN or VPN. Changes are not detected via FTP, WebDAV and so forth.

• FTP and WebDAV servers traditionally use the current system time for all incoming files. So the timestamp on the FTP server becomes different from the Last Modified time on your computer. In some cases, this is not a problem (for example if you only copy files to the FTP server). However, if you need to copy bidirectionally or really need to preserve the timestamp, here's what can be done.

  The best thing to do would be to install a more modern FTP server software that is able to keep the timestamps, for example Gene6 FTP Server from www.gene6.com.

  If the server software can't be replaced, you could use Filename Encoding to retain the timestamps on the FTP server. You'll find that option on the Versioning tab sheet. Filename Encoding will modify the filenames by adding the date and time to them, so you can only use it if it's OK that the filenames look encoded on the server.

  If filename encoding can't be used and you need to do a bidirectional synchronization, there is still another option. You can use SmartTracking, which can remember the timestamp that the server assignes to the files when they were uploaded. That way, it can recognize if the files have been changed or not, even if the timestamp is not identical to the one on your computer. For this, please choose the SmartTracking operating mode on click the Configure button. Go to the Options tab sheet and choose "Detect Unchanged Files" for the online side. Uncheck the other option "Also Ignore File Sizes" which rarely needed.

  If you have already uploaded files and their timestamps do not match, you can use this SmartTracking method (as described above) to handle the problem. First you need to let the program build the database so that it remembers the existing timestamps. Do this by starting the profile manually and choosing "Show: Unaffected" in the Sync Preview so that it doesn't copy any files but adds them all to the database.

• If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, please turn off the nView Desktop Manager or at least exclude Super Flexible from being handled by it.

• To select subfolders in Wizard Mode, click on "Include Selected Subfolders And Files..." in the wizard's step 2 of 6.

• To select subfolders in Advanced Mode, please click on "Select Folders And Files..." located in the left area of the "Edit Profiles" tab sheet.

Yes, synchronizing with the iDisk is possible. You can access it directly using the WebDAV protocol. On Mac, you can also mount it and access it as a mounted volume rather than via WebDAV.

Here's a sample WebDAV URL for the iDisk: https://idisk.mac.com/youridiskname/

On Mac, if you prefer to use it as a mounted volume, you can use the option "Mount Network Volume" on the Job tab sheet to make sure the volume is mounted.

• This means that the service does not have network access. Make sure you have at least version 3.61, as setting up the service has been made easier in this version. There are two requirements for network access:

• First, the service must be given a log on account. This is done when clicking on the Install... button on the Scheduler tab sheet to install the service. To change the log on account, please uninstall and then re-install the service. Make sure that you specify a user account where you know that Windows Explorer has access to the volumes that you need. Choose an account that has network access without Windows Explorer asking for a password for the network drive. Windows Explorer should have already stored the password.

• Second, network volumes must be specified using a UNC path such as \\servername\sharename\foldername rather than a mapped drive letter.

• If this is not sufficient, you can provide a username and password for the network resource in each profile. Use this setting on the Job tab sheet in the profile: Network Connections... However, in many cases this is not needed. Rather than specifying the full path for the network connection, you can also try specifying just \\servername.

• For more details, please see Super Flexible File Synchronizer NT Service.

• On Windows, the software can copy locked files by using the Volume Shadow Copy Service that is integrated into Windows. This feature is automatically used when needed. It can be configured on the tab sheet "File Access".

• On Macintosh, open files can always be copied unless "Database-safe mode" is chosen on the File Access tab sheet.

• Security Mode: Explicit TSL (always recommended for SSL)

• Older versions of Gene6 worked with the default Security settings.  Newer versions require the following settings:
   - Auth Cmd: TLS
   - Version: SSL v3

• First you need to know that this software cannot merge different emails from two computers and generate an Outlook database that contains emails or contacts from both sources. Super Flexible File Synchronizer always treats Outlook files as a complete entity, so it can only replicate the complete state of your emails from one computer to another. This is ideal for backup purposes. Large Outlook files can also be copied partially to speed up the transfer.

• If the destination computer contains emails that are not on the source system and you copy the Outlook file from source to destination, then the email that were only on the destination computer are lost.

• This problem can be overcome by adhering to a strict policy where you always synchronize the two computers before switching to the other one and receiving emails there. If you switch computers and receive emails before synchronizing each time you switch, then you get a mixed state which this program cannot resolve.

• If you want to copy Outlook files while Outlook is running, please also see "Copying locked/open files" further above.

• To synchronize, you need to to find the correct paths for both machines that you are synchronizing. If your login user name is different on both computers, then the paths are also different. The  path generally is similar to:
  C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\
  Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
  
  You can then synchronize all files in these folders, or just the .PST files (specify *.PST in the "File Masks" field).

• In addition, before doing the synchronization of the PST file, you should have set up Outlook on both computers and started it at least once so that it has prepared the email configuration.

• The Windows Address Book (WAB) is stored in
  Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Address Book.

• Method 1 (using the Background Scheduler - recommended)
  In version 4, the background scheduler is automatically configured to start with Windows when you save a profile that uses a schedule. You can also check the Auto-Start option on the "Tools and Settings" menu from the Scheduler tab sheet.

• Method 2 (using the ExtremeSync service, for experts)
  The main advantage of the ExtremeSync service is that it runs even when no user is logged on. However, it is more difficult to set up and since it runs as an invisible service, it is less intuitive.
  
  You will find more information on the service here.

• Please install the latest version and switch to FTP Library 1 or 2, which you can select on the FTP dialog. Also try Passive Mode, which is another setting on the first tab sheet of the FTP dialog.

• Files encrypted with ZIP-compatible AES encryption can be decrypted with ZIP tools from various vendors, including WinZIP and PowerArchiver.