Strange sync issue

Troubleshooting
1

I’m using odrive to sync Box.com to a PC and I just noticed strange things happen this morning.

For example, it updated from Box to PC:
Beeman Investment Portfolio/01. Opportunities Pipeline/2022/Pipelines 301-400/2022-354 - TW Beeman NAV Loan/03. DD - Beeman Tachs/01. Initial DD to point of closing/4. 02-21-23 - unfunded amount & cash flow forecast/02-15-23 - GS request for unfunded amount.pdf

Less than 1 minute later, it uploads from PC to Box:
Beeman Investment Portfolio/01. Opportunities Pipeline/2022/Pipelines 301-400/2022-354 - TW Beeman NAV Loan/03. DD - Beeman Tachs/4. 02-21-23 - unfunded amount & cash flow forecast/02-15-23 - GS request for unfunded amount.pdf

By comparing the path, you can see the PDF file was copied from original folder to a different folder then got uploaded.

This is just one example. Lots of files were uploaded like this today, all went to different folders and created duplicates on Box. The PC in the sync pair is not used by anyone. It sits in a locked IT room. So, no one touched it. I am using odrive for one-way sync purpose. But even though this feature had been requested long before, you haven’t added it to the program (Why?). I don’t know how long it’s been doing this kind of copying/uploading, maybe for months, now that I’m looking at the sync log. If there’s one-way sync option, it would have prevented this from happening.

On another note:
Why for the Successful Download items, it uses "" for folder path, while for Successful Upload and Success Update items, it uses “/”?

2

Hi @dancap,
Thanks for reaching out.

odrive won’t copy files around, on its own, so there must be something else at work here. For example, maybe there is a local symlink to 03. DD - Beeman Tachs/4. 02-21-23 - unfunded amount & cash flow forecast inside of 01. Initial DD to point of closing, or vice-versa?

There is a way to prevent file updates in the client, using an advanced configuration setting, but not new file uploads. Have you looked into changing the permissions for the Box user to have read-only permissions, so that it is not allowed to write to Box?

I think this is just a case where the path is not being normalized for the OS for uploads. We can look into it, but it is purely cosmetic and doesn’t indicate any functional difference.

3

The way I use odrive is just to backup whatever files on Box.com to a local computer. As I mentioned, this PC computer is not used by any office users. I also don’t log on to it on daily basis. No one creates symlinks on the computer.

I occasionally log in via Remote Desktop and find a dialogue box asking for permission to delete files that were deleted from Box, and I simply click to confirm. Sometimes there is another warning window on top of that dialogue box – I don’t remember what it says. I just dismissed both windows and let it sync. Maybe that’s the cause for yesterday’s incident.

Is there a way for the software to bypass deletion confirmation windows automatically, instead of me doing it manually? Sometime there will be a week or two that goes by before I log into that PC again. I think it might cause problem when the deletion occurs but odrive still keeps syncing all the folders.

4

Hi @dancap,
If you can send a diagnostic, I can take a look and see what sticks out, including any delete confirmations, and then offer some suggestions.

Just let me know when you are able to send it.

5

I closed the program after we discover the issue. Now I just run it again to sent the diagnostic.

6

Can I also send you the sync log and the error log privately? There are errors the pertain the issue when thing went wrong.

7

Hi @dancap,
I took a look, and it looks like there was a flurry of activity when upload occurred, with downloads, moves, and deletes of several folders. odrive detected that one of the folders being removed had unsynced items in it, so it aborted the delete and re-uploaded the contents. The client behaves this way because it always errs on the side of preserving data, rather than deleting it.

I can’t tell why it believed there were unsynced local items, but it may have had something to do with an error that Windows came back with when trying to move a folder to the recycle bin, so what you said above makes sense.

Here is what I recommend for next steps:

  1. You are running an older version of the client, which generally isn’t a problem, but for your particular use case there have been some changes that I think will help. So you should update to the latest version.

    To do this:

    • Exit odrive from the odrive tray menu
    • Download the latest version from here: Set Up Your odrive
    • Install

  2. Change the advanced configuration option osTrashOverride: Advanced client options
    It should be set to at least 1 to skip the recycle bin when there is an error. You may want to set it to 2, though, to always skip the recycle bin when there is a remote to local delete.

8

In the Advanced option documentation, you said there are two locations, 1) in the root … 2) in the user home folder/.odrive-agent … I can’t find the /.odrive-agent location.

In the root location, I see the conf files but there is no osTrashOverride parameter. Do I just add it? If so, what’s the syntax?

9

Hi @dancap,
/.odrive-agent is only for the odrive agent, so you don’t need to worry about that.

Just delete the two conf files in the odrive folder and they will be regenerated within 15 seconds, or so, with all of the latest settings.

10

OK. Let’s see how it goes.

1 Like
11

Hi Tony,

All the sudden, it’s happening again starting last night. I checked the advance options; the file is unchanged from Nov 3rd.

/Jenson

12

Uploaded wrong screenshot. Here is the right one.

Screenshot 2024-02-16 at 2.49.00 PM
Screenshot 2024-02-16 at 2.49.00 PM1236×1450 121 KB

13

Hi @dancap,

  1. I didn’t see a diagnostic from you. Did you send one?
  2. When you look at the “sync activity log” do you see any references to what you are experiencing?
  3. What is it that you are seeing happen, specifically and with which paths?
14

just sent it. Just sent it.

15

Hi @dancap,
odrive detected an unsynced change in the deleted folder. It doesn’t look like it was due to the Recycle Bin, so it must’ve actually thought something wasn’t synced all the way.

I’ll make sure we add the name of the items being detected to the log in the next release.

Here is the log entry:
15 Feb 08:50:54PM INFO Remote folder deleted, but local folder E:/odrive/Box/Dancap Investment Portfolio/06. Active Consolidated Internal Portfolio Monitoring Responsibilities/Dancap 01-01-23 Valuations (Shared with CBV, Monty Bhardwaj)/2188405 - 2188405 Ontario Inc has unsynced items. Ignoring delete and uploading contents of local folder

If you delete this folder from on your local system and then empty that item in the odrive trash, it should do the trick.

16

It happened again on June 1st. Previously per your instructions, I had enabled the OS Trash bypass. But it still uploaded a copy of the folder that shouldn’t be in that place.

The exact entries in the main.log when it happened are here:

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO OS Trash override is enabled (2). OS trash will be bypassed

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO Successful Delete File (Remote to Local) for Item: E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\2023 ADHIILP T1135 Appendix 1 - Category 6.xlsx - Size: NA - Date: NA

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO OS Trash override is enabled (2). OS trash will be bypassed

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO Successful Delete File (Remote to Local) for Item: E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\2023 ADHIILP T1135 WP.xlsx - Size: NA - Date: NA

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO OS Trash override is enabled (2). OS trash will be bypassed

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO Successful Delete File (Remote to Local) for Item: E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\2023 T1135 Completed Form (fillable).pdf - Size: NA - Date: NA

01 Jun 06:37:53PM INFO Remote folder deleted, but local folder E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement - Due Apr 2, 2024\2023 T1135 Individual WP has unsynced item(s): E:/odrive/Box/Dancap Accounting & Tax/ADHI Investments Limited Partnership/Tax Filings/CDN Tax Filings/2023/2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement - Due Apr 2, 2024/2023 T1135 Individual WP. Ignoring delete and uploading contents of local folder

01 Jun 06:37:54PM INFO OS Trash override is enabled (2). OS trash will be bypassed

01 Jun 06:37:55PM INFO Successful Delete File (Remote to Local) for Item: E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\ADHIILP Draft 2023 T1135.pdf - Size: NA - Date: NA

01 Jun 06:37:56PM INFO Successful Create Folder (Local to Remote) for E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\2023 T1135 Individual WP

01 Jun 06:37:57PM INFO Successful Upload File for Item: E:\odrive\Box\Dancap Accounting & Tax\ADHI Investments Limited Partnership\Tax Filings\CDN Tax Filings\2023\2023 T1135 - Foreign Income Verification Statement\2023 T1135 Individual WP#46 GS Pledge Account - ab mg.xlsx - Size: 18194 Bytes - Date: 2024-03-21 17:01:03

Even though it doesn’t happen very often, but it has created stresses, confusions, and headaches for our users. If we can’t solve the problem for good, I’ll have to stop using your program.

17

Hi @dancap,

The OS trash bypass doesn’t relate to this instance. In this case there were items that were detected as “not synced” in the 2023 T1135 Individual WP folder. In order to ensure that your data is not lost, it re-uploaded the detected items instead of deleting them.

If you send a diagnostic I can try to look for why there were items detected as not synced, which triggered this behavior. Just let me know when that is sent!

18

It says, “There was an error sending the diagnostic report:”. There is no description of what error is.

19

Hi @dancap,
Ahh. That indicates you are running an older version of the client. You will need a version from at least April due to the security keys being rotated for diagnostics.

If you install the latest you should be able to send a diagnostic without any errors.

Just do the following:

  1. Exit odrive from the odrive tray menu
  2. Download and install the latest from here: https://www.odrive.com/downloaddesktop?platform=win
  3. Send the diagnostic
20

The diagnostic has been sent.