a few small issues

English Support for Syncovery on Linux etc.
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mwang
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:57 am

a few small issues

Post by mwang »

Hi,

I've just started testing Syncovery on Ubuntu 22.04, in the hope that it'll take over the job of regular cloud sync with Google Drive. I exported all profiles from my Mac setup and re-imported them into the Linux setup. I was disappointed to learn Syncovery doesn't do realtime sync on Linux, but I guess I can live with that for now.

There are several small issues that, while not show-stopping (not stopping my migration plan), are quite annoying:

1. Several profiles of mine use realtime sync on Mac, and Syncovery on Linux insists it's "Monitoring Folders" for those profiles according to the WebUI. There is also a log called "Syncovery_realtime_status_log.txt" in the log directory, which basically contains a bunch of error messages about "Network monitoring not implemented".

I can't disable realtime sync from the WebUI, since there is no checkbox to tick there. I had to edit the profile xml files by hand and re-import them.

2. Most of my sync profiles with Google Drive use two-way smart-tracking, for I have a few Google Sheets spreadsheets I work exclusively online, for lack of comparable functions in Excel. I want to sync them to my local storage as backups, but I don't expect to open them in Excel. I therefore chose to download them as zip files in my Mac setup. Alas, the option is not available in the Linux version. Could you please add it there? Thanks!

3. On a related note, those files are always marked as "Conflicts" when unchanged, because the local version always differ in size when compared to the cloud version (no matter what format is used locally) while having the same date/time stamp. While I understand the logic, can't Syncovery remember them as such somehow (with notes, checksums or something in the database)? I've learned to live with it by ignoring them (by roughly remembering the number of such pairs), but it's still annoying.

4. Another related issue, and I think it's a bug: the "Google Docs" settings dialog says "These are global settings that apply to all profiles", but however I change them, I don't see my new settings when checking a different profile or creating a new one.

5. There is no attended mode in the Linux version, and that's one of my favorite features. I didn't give up the migration only because I can still use the Mac version when needed, and I still have Beyond Compare (another old friend from my Windows days) when not sync'ing with cloud.

6. A small complaint: the Linux version uses peculiar default locations for its settings, dbs, logs, and such. I would prefer /etc/syncovery (not capitalized and without the file-hiding leading dot) for the settings. Logs should go to /var/log/syncovery (again, all small case), and the dbs in /var/run/syncovery. That would be more in line with common Linux practices. (I've changed them myself, but those should be the defaults.)

7. The best part of a WebUI is the freedom to zoom in and out. Could we get some flexibility in UI font size for the Mac version (in v10 perhaps)?

Thanks for listening!

mwang
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:57 am

Re: a few small issues

Post by mwang »

Sorry, forgot to mention:

8. there is a line saying "Using SecureBlackBox SSL v16.0.329.0" in all of my logs, while non of the profiles has the option checked.

tobias
Posts: 1603
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:37 pm

Re: a few small issues

Post by tobias »

Hi,
thanks for your post!

Yes importing profiles from a different platform is not really support 100%, so I'm glad you were able to solved the real-time problem. I will change it so that the real-time setting is automatically turned off as long as the Linux version doesn't support it. It might eventually be going to be added.

I will fix the document conversion settings and add the missing .zip format.

The Linux version has "Run With Preview", which is the equivalent of Attended Mode on macOS and Windows, although less powerful.

The SecureBlackBox option is a global setting on the Program Settings dialog, tab sheet "Cloud". It's also on the Internet/FTP dialog in each profile, where you should choose the checkmark "Use TGPuttyLib SFTP Implementation". Maybe this choice didn't get imported from your macOS profiles. TGPuttyLib is newer and usually more compatible and faster than SecureBlackBox. Although SecureBlackBox will get a big update in Syncovery 10 also.

I will post another reply with additional details.

mwang
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:57 am

Re: a few small issues

Post by mwang »

tobias wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 7:46 am
The Linux version has "Run With Preview", which is the equivalent of Attended Mode on macOS and Windows, although less powerful.
It's the "less powerful" part that's bugging me, as I can't deal with the conflicts there, nor can I change the copy direction individually. To me, that what Attended Mode is for. After all profiles properly set up and running, I use Attended Mode mostly to overwrite newer files with older ones after having messed up the new ones. (One of the main reasons why we have backups, isn't it?)
tobias wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 7:46 am
The SecureBlackBox option is a global setting on the Program Settings dialog, tab sheet "Cloud". It's also on the Internet/FTP dialog in each profile, where you should choose the checkmark "Use TGPuttyLib SFTP Implementation". Maybe this choice didn't get imported from your macOS profiles.
I'm at a loss here. The global SecureBlackBox option isn't enabled, and none of my profiles on Linux is using SFTP. They all use the "Google Drive" protocol, and there is no option about this. Syncovery on my main Mac desktop does have a few more profiles, including several that use SFTP. They do use SecureBlackBox, probably because that's the default when I set them up. They were not imported into the Linux setup.

I tried to enable the global SecureBlackBox option, did one sync operation, then disabled it again, and did another sync operation (same profile). Both logs tells me "Using SecureBlackBox SSL v16.0.329.0".

tobias
Posts: 1603
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:37 pm

Re: a few small issues

Post by tobias »

Hi,
yes, one day the Sync Preview will be made more powerful.

In this case, SecureBlackBox is used for SSL instead of OpenSSL. That's fine. Why did you mention it?

mwang
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:57 am

Re: a few small issues

Post by mwang »

tobias wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:59 am
Hi,
yes, one day the Sync Preview will be made more powerful.
Thanks!
tobias wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:59 am
In this case, SecureBlackBox is used for SSL instead of OpenSSL. That's fine. Why did you mention it?
I mentioned it only because I happened to notice it in the logs, and felt odd for I remember leaving the option of using SecureBlackBox unchecked (so I thought Syncovery would use OpenSSL instead). Nothing really important as long as it's secure.

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