Super Flexible File Synchronizer

Version History

The All-New Version 4

Version 4 is now available on the Downloads page. The version 4 update is a free for purchases after Oct 1st, 2007, but you will most likely need a new registration code. Older licenses will be eligible for an upgrade at 50% of the regular price.
 
To obtain your new registration code or see your upgrading options, please install version 4 and click on the "Show Upgrading Options" button on the Ordering tab sheet in the software.
 
Version 4 can be installed over an existing installation and the profiles will be retained. You may want to make a copy of your SuperFlexibleSynchronizerPRO.ini file in case you need to switch back to version 3 (even though most profiles will port back without a problem).

New Features

Detailed version history

v4.60a:
Volume shadowing, advanced settings: adds selection of writers and their components rather than just the writers.

v4.60:
New icons and other user interface improvements.
Check for Update is now available in the Help menu.
New SmartTracking option to "prompt" in case of conflicts.
Profiles with many inclusion or exclusion masks are now much faster.
Real time synchronization is now compatible with Time Windows, and it can detect changes to security settings.
Adds Advanced VSS Settings where advanced users can select the VSS Writers to use for volume shadoing (see File Access tab sheet).
More logging options for troubleshooting.
When the scheduler is off, the "next run" times are now shown in parentheses or the label Scheduler OFF is displayed instead.
Hidden folders can now be selected in the subfolder selection again.
Folders for deleted files are automatically excluded from the synchronization itself.
Fixes some real-time synchronization bugs and other issues.
Communication with the ExtremeSync Remote Service for getting a remote listing can now be made using a separate path from the main data path.
Additional improvements.

v4.59c (Mac and Windows):
Fixes a potential problem with non-Western Unicode characters and FTP/SSH/WebDAV.
Additional, minor improvements.

v4.59b:
Adds new checkbox on Files tab sheet: Detect renamed files. This detection currently requires Exact Mirror Mode or SmartTracking with deletion detection. The files are matched by timestamp and file size. The content is not compared.
More real-time improvements.
Fixes the UTC/GMT checkbox on the versioning tab sheet which has been partially broken for a few versions.

v4.59a:
Adds new real-time synchronization option: "ignore certain temporary files in real time".

v4.59 (Windows only):
Fixes a real-time sync bug new since 4.57 which could under some circumstances delete files from the source side.

v4.58f:
Fixes a problem accessing the Remote Listing feature via FTP, as well as a problem with the option "Verify sync statistics after completion".

v4.58e:
Fixes an occasional Amazon S3 redirection error message with the new feature of moving files.
On Mac, it fixes the Wizard Mode not working.

v4.58d:
Fixes the functionality of the setting "Flat Right Side (no folders)" which has not been hooked up in the last few updates.
On Mac, fixes zipping of files with non-ASCII characters.

v4.58b,c (Windows only):
Fixes an "Access Problem" occurring on some systems when running a profile in the background or by scheduler. This bug was new in v4.58.
Fixes a few other issues caused by the new threading model for building the file list.

v4.58a:
Fixes some progress display issues due to the new threading model while building the file list.

v4.58:
File list is now being built in a separate thread even if the profile is run in the foreground.
Amazon S3 now supports SmartTracking and the detection of moved files as well as moving files into a Folder For Deleted Files.
Real Time Synchronization now supports the detection of moved files unless deletions are delayed or filenames are encoded.

v4.57:
File list is now being built in a separate thread, which can speed it up and creates a different progress reporting experience.
Update: in this release, the separate thread is only used when a profile is run by the scheduler or in the background. The next version will bring the improvement to jobs running in the foreground GUI also.

Real Time Synchronization now obeys folder exclusion masks.
Fixes a problem where profiles with the rarely used checkmark "Flat Right Side (no folders)" sometimes would not run in the background or via scheduler.
Remote Service can now recursively monitor folders with subfolders for the checksumming and remote file listing features. The control panel now has a checkbox "Check subfolders too" for this purpose.
Fies a Remote Service problem causing it to sometimes create many small remote listing files rather than a few big ones.

v4.56:
Added "Monitoring Tool" to the File menu.
Another "Adjust Folder Timestamps" bug fix, this time concerning deleted folders.
FTP Library 3 can now handle an FTP server saying "Fallback to [C]". The other libraries still can't handle this and it is not recommended anyway.

v4.55c:
Improvement for "Move Files" mode: empty folders on the source are now moved to the destination and removed from the source side.
Improvement for "Adjust Folder Timestamps": folder timestamps are now verified at the end of the synchronization so that it should no longer be needed to run the profile twice.
New variables for the "Execute after" command line: $RESULT = GOOD or BAD, $MSG = Summary text of profile run.
The same profile can now have the options "Left/right side listing uses remote service" and "Real-Time Synchronization" checked. They will however not be used at the same time.

v4.55b:
Various small bug fixes.
WebDAV SSL authentication should now be able to fall back to username/password even if the server asks for a client certificate first.

v4.55a:
Updated FTP Library 2 and disabled compressed transfer (Mode Z) for it due to compatibility problems with some servers.

v4.55:
Adds HTML emails and email digest features (see Program Settings).
Adds new checkbox on Program Settings->Miscellaneous: "Start Background Jobs Via Service". This enables limited users to start profiles in the user context of the service scheduler.

v4.54:
Fixes the creation of Amazon S3 buckets.
Profiles using the Remote Service to generate the file listing can now process an unlimited number of files because the remote listing will be transmitted in parts.
Reinstates processing of large profiles in parts depending on the memory usage settings. This feature has been absent from a number of previous versions.

v4.53b:
Fixes a rare Range Check Error.
Improved error handling when uploading ZIP packages via FTP.

v4.53a:
Weekday and Time Window selections are now taken into account for startup and shutdown profiles.
Profile base paths and other strings with a mixture of standard ASCII (such as English) and Unicode characters (such as Chinese) can now be longer.
Improvements for dual use of a profile for Real Time Synchronization and regular scheduling.
The scheduler start-up idle time is now also applied to real time sync profiles.
A new checkbox on the Versioning->More tab sheet allows to undo and remove the versioning tags -1 and -2 from files.
The implementation of the SmartTracking setting "Consider different files with the same name, not present in database, a conflict" has been completed.

v4.53 (Macintosh):
The background scheduler will no longer appear in the Dock.

v4.53 (Windows and Macintosh):
The "Move Files" mode now works with ZIP Packages.
Copying many files into a single ZIP Package is now faster.
Inclusion and Exclusion Masks can now reference a text file where the masks are stored. See the updated F1 help for details.
Full profile runs can now be scheduled in addition to Real Time Synchronization.
SSH can now be accessed over a HTTP proxy.
WebDAV compatibility problems with some servers have been fixed.
Zero-Length files can now be uploaded via WebDAV and Amazon S3.
Fixes occasional "No contact for 1:xx" status display for background tasks.
Real Time Synchronization no longer continuously checks the existence of the destination folder (only the source) - unless you also use the option "Run profile as soon as drives or volumes involved become available", in which case all folders are regularly checked for existence.
Improvements concerning the "Flat Right Side" mode.

v4.52b:
When a drive is identified by volume label, the program will no longer access drives A: and B:.
A new setting on the Program Settings dialog allows to prevent the Background Scheduler from being auto-started with Windows logins.
Fixes processing of remote listings generated by the ExtremeSync Remote Service which could occasionally not see some folders on the remote side. The remote service itself has not been updated.

v4.52a:
Fixes the SmartTracking option to "ignore" deleted files. In some previous versions, this ignoring would work only during the first run after a file had been deleted.
Fixes HTML downloading of items above profile's the base folder.
Fixes a rare need to re-run the same profile when folders have been moved and complex changes to the folder structure have been made.

v4.52 (Windows only):
Adds support for Windows 7.
Adds support for the HOST command that some FTP servers use (see the Proxy tab sheet, although this is not a Proxy setting).
When the scheduler is started as a service, the GUi will not notify it about which INI file to use. This facilitates running the service under a different user account from the GUI.
The tray icon should now be visible even if you use the service.
Profiles that use "Run Upon Login" will now be executed by the service, but they will use the $USERPROFILE and some other variables from the logged on user.
WebDAV now works with the SAP Portals Server.
Fixes the "Run As User" option sometimes not being saved.

v4.51a (Mac only):
Fixes the registration and other preferences sometimes not being saved.

v4.51:
Compatibility problem with some FTP servers fixed.
Fix for "Use Destination Cache" feature: counter for re-reading the complete list was not working.

v4.50a:
Compatibility problem with large file downloads from some WebDAV servers fixed.
SmartTracking problem fixed where zipped files would be added to the database with the zipped size rather than the unzipped size.

v4.50:
New settings added to the Exact Mirror configuration dialog to delay the deletion of files.
New checkbox on Files->Deletions tab sheet to allow Exact Mirror mode to delete files when combined with Versioning and Filename Encoding.
Miscellaneous other improvements.

v4.49:
Real Time Synchronization can now handle renames and deletions when the right side contains encoded file names (for example, zipped files or filenames with encoded timestamps).
Adds the variable $WEEKOFYEAR.

v4.48b:
Adds support for WebDAV redirects when downloading a file.
Adds a "Use Google Mail" button to the Email SMTP Settings dialog.

v4.48a:
Adds support for Amazon S3 buckets stored in Europe.
Build 145: fixes the S3-related setting "Make uploaded files publicly available" which did not work with lowercase bucket names in build 144.

v4.48 (Windows):
Adds options to the profile editor to shutdown the computer (on the Job tab sheet).
Implements more diligent retries with Amazon S3 to ensure reliable operation.

v4.47c (Windows):
This version works on Windows 98 again.

v4.47b (Windows):
The Restore Wizard can now handle variables such as %USERNAME% in the backup path.
Fixes a Range Check Error message which sometimes occured when background tasks were running.

v4.47a (Windows):
Fixes a resource (handle) leak.

v4.47 (Windows):
Adds some options to the "Waiting & Retrying" tab sheet.
Before a folder is removed via FTP, the program now double-checks that it is empty immediately before trying to remove it.
Default settings for new profiles can be specified by saving a profile under the name default, then exporting it to a file named presets.ini which needs to be in the program folder (where SuperFlexibleSynchronizer.exe is). To leave the left/right paths, empty, type ? in those fields. If you want to specify a base path and the user should later add a folder name to the path, type for example ftp://backupdomain.com/? or ftp://backupdomain.com/UserAccount/?.

v4.46c (Windows):
Improves Real Time Sync reliability when files on the source side are renamed.

v4.46b (Macintosh):
Fixes the detection of free disk space and other minor bugs.

v4.46b (Windows):
Fixes a possible error message and/or memory leak when using the option "Verify Sync Statistics After Completion".

v4.46a (Windows):
Files downloaded from an FTP site can now be zipped and encrypted.
When using the Time Window and downloading from a site with Auto-Resume, the program will now interrupt the profile in the middle of a file when the end of the time window is reached.
Made SmartTracking more reliable.
The schedule option "Interval specifies the idle time between runs" has now been implemented for profiles running in parallel.
Replaced file versions, or older versions that have been cleared from the backup, are now also correctly removed from the database.

v4.46 (Windows):
Will now ask you to connect and turn on a drive if the volume label can't be found and if you referenced it via volume label rather than drive letter. For example, specify USBDRIVE:\ rather than G:\ in the profile.
Adds new checkboxes on the Email Notifications part of the Program Settings.
Fixes a lock-up when a folder was going to be renamed but couldn't.

v4.45a (Windows):
Fixes a few bugs in the subfolder selection. In particular, in some special cases the folder selection could not be stored. This should now always work.
Also fixes a problem when a folder was moved into a new subfolder. This move could not always be replicated to an FTP, SSH, or WebDAV server.

v4.45 (Windows):
Allows to specify a user account to be used for Volume Shadowing if the main user does not have access to it.
Fixes an occasional AV message which was new to v4.44a.

v4.44a (Macintosh and Windows):
Updated the Mac version with the latest features and fixes. Real Time Monitoring on Mac can monitor up to 100 folders. On Windows, there is no limit.
Fixes a problem where the filename encoding did not always use UTC/GMT (World) Time even though the checkbox was selected.

v4.44 (Windows only):
All retained versions of a file in backup storage are now remembered by the Destination Cache and available thru the Restore Wizard when using the backup database.

v4.43b (Windows only):
Fixes problems on Chinese computers that have occurred in recent versions.

v4.43a (Windows only):
Improves Real-Time Synchronization, which now supports file deletions and file and folder renames.

v4.42 (Windows only):
Adds an option in the profile-specific Email override settings to send an email "when nothing was to be done". This must be used in conjunction with "Only when an error has occurred" so that you will receive an email only if nothing was done or if an error has occurred.
Fixes possible unwanted continuous invocation of a profile as well as other bugs.

v4.41b (Windows only):
Fixes a small "last result" reporting problem with Real Time Synchronization.
Fixes an error message that appeared when the notiication settings "Send email when a file has been replaced" or "Send email upon conflict" were used.

v4.41a (Windows only):
Fixes a few bugs: the last run info was sometimes not updated in the Profile Overview; the scheduler startup/shutdown options now work on Windows 98, and a few other problems were fixed.

v4.41 (Windows only):
Real-Time Synchronization improvements and bug fixes. There is a new setting where you can specify a minimum pause between actions. Broken network connections now cause the program to switch to "Waiting for availability" and then back to "Monitoring folders" when the folders are available again.
Fixed some bugs in the ExtremeSync Remote service and a few memory and resource leaks.

v4.40a (Windows only):
Fixes problems when a very large profile was split up into several parts when being run. These may have affected some profiles with well over 300,000 files. The automatic splitting of profiles can be turned off on the Program Settings dialog, tab sheet Advanced.

v4.40 (Windows only):
Adds Real-Time Synchronization (on the tab sheet Schedule->Monitoring / Real-Time Sync).
Fixes a bug in the new Remote Service from v4.30 which would confuse checksum requests with listing requests.

v4.33b:
Fixes a problem in version 4.33(a) where SSH profiles would not work when run in parallel in the background.

v4.33a:
Fixes a problem in version 4.33 where emails would always be sent, even if nothing was done or no error occurred.

v4.33 (Windows only):
Running several profiles in parallel has been improved substantially in terms of performance and reliability. The new version will also run profiles that use Internet Protocols in parallel threads rather than a separate process for each job. The status display "No contact for ..." should no longer appear.
If a profile is repeated due to an error, only one email is sent combining the information for all profile runs (see the Access & Retries tab sheet in the profile).

v4.32:
WebDAV with https now works correctly with Proxy servers.
Fixes the "needed" storage space mentioned in log files.
Adds option to include a list of copied files and other actions in the email notification text.
Adds option to send the notification emails to both the global email recipients and those specified on the "Override Email Settings" dialog in each profile.
Mac: fixes display of Chinese characters.

v4.31:
Volume Shadowing can now be used on 64-bit Windows.

v4.30a:
Adds the capability to import several INI files at once.
Fixes a scheduler bug that could cause profiles not being run.

v4.30:
The ExtremeSync Remote Service can now be used to build the file list on the server and transmit it in one file. This can greatly speed up building the file list. The new Remote Service and Control Panel must be installed on the remote machine. On the local machine, edit the profile in Advanced Mode, go to the Special category and choose the new checkboxes "Left side listing uses Remote Service" and/ or "Right side listing uses Remote Service".
Also fixes the Speed Limit option which was not working in all cases in versions 4.2x.

4.22a (Mac only):
Adds support for executing a script or application before and/or after a profile. See the Job category in each profile.

4.22(Mac only):
The first official Macintosh release.

v4.21b:
Fixes an "invalid floating point operation" error which could occur under some circumstances when no files were to be copied.
The WebDAV module now interprets BST as British Summer Time.

v4.21a:
Fixes downloading files over 2GB from an SSH server.
Fixes timestamp synchronization with some WebDAV servers.
Fixes upload resuming with FTP library #3.

v4.21:
Fixes email notifications which were missing in 4.20 when profiles were run in parallel in the background.
Volume shadowing is now triggered by locked files being uploaded using an Internet Protocol even if they are not zipped.
Other improvements and bug fixes.

v4.20:
Copy several files simultaneously. The number of parallel copied files is specified on the Files tab sheet in the profiles.
Import and Export Selected Profiles
SmartTracking can now delete files directly and no longer forces you to use a folder for deleted files.
SSH authentication made more failsafe. New Advanced SSH Settings dialog available on the Security tab sheet of the Internet dialog.
Details about conflicts are now written to the log file.
WebDAV automatically adjusts for some sites, for example it now works with the box.net service without changing any settings.
SmartTracking no longer deletes folders when the last file has been deleted.
Added new /MASK= command line parameter.
New setting on the Files->More tab sheet: "Preserve Last Access Time Stamp On Source".
Other improvements and bug fixes.

v4.14b:
Fixes setting timestamps via FTP which has been broken in the last few builds.
Folder deletion via WebDAV should now work with all WebDAV servers.
The Remote Service's unzip function is now Unicode-enabled.

v4.14a:
Fixes a possible error message when running more than one profile via command line, as well as the tray icon missing when running profile via command line.

v4.14:
Fixes the tray icon occasionally missing when using the service scheduler.

Fixes the "target date for restore" being ignored by the Restore Wizard.

Minor UI improvements.

v4.13d:
First Spanish Release.

Fixed an error when the service is stopped while monitoring the network (Schedule->Monitoring).

v4.13c:
Added a button to the toolbar that appears when the INI file is read-only. It invokes File->Enable Editing, which has been improved.

Coarser progress reporting when copying with Windows API copying function.

Fixed an AV when downloading with Partial File Updating, when using the Remote Service to generate checksums.

v4.13b:
Fixes new bug in 4.13a on systems without volume shadowing: unnecessary message about a VSS error code, plus service won't start.

On the welcome screen, the scheduler button is now labeled according to the current scheduler state (running or not running).

v4.13a:
Fixed some dialogs on Windows with large system fonts.

Fixed an AV error message that could occur with the /RUN= option (not /RUNX=). Added $MAINUSERNAME and $MAINUSERPROFILE which refer to the user that started the program even if a profile uses "Run As User..." to run as a different user.

v4.13:
Fixed a problem where zipping could fail occasionally when profiles were run in parallel and a profile completed while another profile was zipping a file.

Fixed a problem where Partial File Updating would not create a database unless some other database-related setting was used (such as Cache Destination File List). Existing databases were updated fine, but if a database did not exist for a profile, Partial File Updating would not work.

v4.12d:
Fixed the Auto-Resume feature when copying directly from FTP to FTP.

v4.12c:
Fixed the setting "Folder Masks" which sometimes did not stick.

v4.12b:
Fixed the setting "Run monthly". More detailed error logging in case zipping fails.

v4.12a:
File shares without security descriptor are now processed (previously they were being ignored).

Since v4.12, FTP will now automatically try both passive and active mode if it can't get a directory listing. In v4.12a, this mechanism was fine-tuned so that the new attempts are not triggered by empty directories.

v4.12:
Fixes a problem where the database would cut off very long paths when Partial File Updating was used.

Some improvements related to mirroring file shares.

v4.11:
Fixes occasional error messages when the scheduler runs as a service 24/7 without interruption. The service will now automatically restart itself after 24 hours, or after 50 jobs have run. This is a matter of 1-2 seconds and will not have any side effects.

Adds replacement of disallowed characters on the Internet Protocol Settings dialog, tab sheet Advanced. Currently, there is only one supported disallowed character, which is the colon. Some FTP servers may store filenames with colons. These can be replaced with the division sign when downloading.

Fixes FTP problems with the special y character with two points, as in the name Queensrÿche.

Zipping and encryption now works with long paths (>252 characters).

Fixes additional minor issues.

v4.10:
Adds new features to handle a special problem with Sharepoint synchronization. When Microsoft Office documents are copied to a Sharepoint folder, the server may add some tags to the file, thereby changing its file size. Two alternative solutions are available to handle this situation:

a) copy modified files back immediately
On the Special tab sheet, you can use the new setting "If the Destination Machine Modifies Received Files, Changing Their Sizes Upon Reception, Then Copy Such Updated Files Back", or

b) use SmartTracking
on SmartTracking->Options, check "Detect Unchanged Files" for the SharePoint side and check "Also Ignore File Sizes Being Modified By Server Immediately After Upload".

The two options can be combined.

Additional changes:
improved handling of SSH errors with error messages rather than numbers and bug fixes.

v4.04-4.09:
- various issues addressed

v4.03:
- adds CPU selection in the Program Settings

v4.01/4.02:
- various bugs fixed (mostly in the user interface)