Many files ignored, not synced

[valleydali]

Summary

Certain files and directories don't get synced, based on their names; they are just silently ignored. But it's hard to remember (or discover) all the rules determining which files or directories will be skipped. There's no way to opt out, and there's no way to view which files are not getting synced.

I would like:

1. A way to specify that the only files and directories to be ignored should be those given in my .filenignore.
2. A way to get a report of which files and directories were actually ignored and not synced.

Either one of these would be a huge improvement (though I would love to see both).

Background

The other day I realized that quite a few of my files were not syncing. This turned out to be due to certain characters in the filenames that were causing the files to be silently skipped.

The FAQ says only:

Due to platform incompatibility (Windows, MacOS and Linux) some file names are ignored by default, e.g. "* . " / \ [ ] : ; | ,".

But in fact many of those characters are allowed (. [ ] ; ,), while others not mentioned aren't allowed (< > ? and control characters).

The actual list is given by the following regex:

/[<>:"\/\\|?*\x00-\x1F]|^(?:aux|con|clock\$|nul|prn|com[1-9]|lpt[1-9])$/i

which appears in helpers.ts. Pathnames with components matching that regex are silently skipped and not synced.

But that's not all. There are additional hard-coded exclusions, including redundant checks for most of the Windows device names, and a variety of extensions such as .tmp. A file will be ignored if it ends in ~, or if it begins or end with a space. And so on.

Problem

My default expectation is that all my files will sync; if there are exceptions they should be few and unsurprising.

Instead the rules are undocumented and complex, and there's no way to opt out.

Yet there is no need for so much to be hard-wired. If I want to exclude certain patterns, I can already do that with .filenignore.

Worst of all, there's no way to see which files ended up being ignored. I may think my files are synced, but I have to tediously compare directory listings on two devices to figure out which ones got skipped.

Request 1

Please consider not skipping so many files. I personally don't care about syncing to Windows, and I don't like being brought down to the lowest common denominator.

On Unix systems (macOS/iOS and Linux), I can't think of any justification for the vast majority of the filename exclusions. For example, Aux is a perfectly reasonable directory name, and my filenames are full of "special" characters (especially :).

I appreciate the need to support Windows users, but perhaps there could be a setting for the rest of us, or some other way to control the exclusions that are currently hard-wired.

I would actually prefer nothing at all to be ignored by default; if I want something not to sync I can use .filenignore. If this behavior isn't for everyone, I'm fine with having to use a setting to enable it.

Request 2

Opinions may differ as to which files should be ignored, but the more serious problem is that files are being ignored silently. (And it's especially serious if the files being silently ignored are files which I didn't choose to ignore!)

The UI should surface some way to see which files weren't synced. They shouldn't just be skipped silently. Perhaps there could be a section in the preferences, similar to how "issues" are presented.

When a sync completes with no failures, it is natural to believe that all files have synced. If there are exceptions, please show them to me! That will give me the opportunity to rename the files, if that's what it takes to get them to sync.

This is very important, because the user may believe everything is fine when in fact various files, or entire directories, have been ignored with no indication they were not successfully synced.

[uncharted-user]

This macOS app doesn't even work on Sonoma. I heard many issues similar to this is the question of data integrity. I guess this app is not ready for reliable off site backup.

[valleydali]

Is anyone (who works on Filen) going to comment on this? It's been almost two months now...

I ask because I have another issue I would like to file as well, but I guess I won't bother if this fine project has been abandoned.

(I suspect it hasn't been abandoned, as the mobile app recently received a very nice update. But even if you disagree with me, I think this was a thoughtfully prepared write-up that deserves some kind of reply.)

[uncharted-user]

Is anyone (who works on Filen) going to comment on this? It's been almost two months now...

I ask because I have another issue I would like to file as well, but I guess I won't bother if this fine project has been abandoned.

(I suspect it hasn't been abandoned, as the mobile app recently received a very nice update. But even if you disagree with me, I think this was a thoughtfully prepared write-up that deserves some kind of reply.)

I think we are left alone!

[21Kingshill]

I think we are left alone!

It seems so. This is one of the reasons I'll quit Filen. I really liked the small and simple GUI. and I always try to support new companies. However, the app hasn't been updated since a year now. I do not see any code changes in git over the last months and important features are in the pipeline since a long time (e.g. drive integration). At least I would expect a better (or any) communication, but there isn't any...

[valleydali]

Any ideas for a replacement? My requirements are:

• E2EE
• Mac support
• iOS support, including Files integration
• free tier available
• open source preferred

I used Sync for a while. Works nicely on Mac, but the iOS side leaves a lot to be desired.

[21Kingshill]

E2EE is not enough imho. I want to have a client side encryption first hand. Second questions whether you need a sync or a backup (Filen was interesting since it doesn't limit file versions).

The best option I found covering all (including drive functionality) is Tresorit, but it looks like last century. PCloud requires add. license for encryption (and has a strange handling in a sep. container). If you have cloud space already, Goodsync might be an option: It can backup and sync and supports client encryption too. The IOS app can decrypt the content (in theory - I had issues with that in the past).

[DanielProg39]

I think we are left alone!

No, you're not. For everyone here - please check this thread: https://github.com/Lissy93/awesome-privacy/issues/208 - here devs and I give comprehensive information on the situation.

TLDR: This app is no longer developed, there's a new one being developed internally with bug fixes and a lot of new features. So stay tuned

[21Kingshill]

Thanks @DanielProg39 for the reply.

Finally, it's all about transparency. If a bug on the mobile app is answered on Github while any other question on the desktop app isn't, it's not transparent to users like me, why. It might be frustrating, if I have an issue and feel left alone or if you wait for a long expected feature without any update.

I must admit, I wasn't aware of the blog (which is a bad sign since I was quite actively looking for such information). Maybe it would be a good step to shut down Github and point to a single point for all information instead. Just a thought...