Strange sync issue

Troubleshooting
21

Thanks @dancap!
In this case I think it was an issue of timing.

It looks like the client needed a new session, which was done on June 1st. The client hadn’t been able to sync for a few days prior to that, so it was coming up-to-speed on all of the recent changes. It was in the middle of syncing queued changes for the “2023 T1135 Individual WP” folder when that folder was deleted in Box, which triggered a data preservation safeguard event. In this case it was overprotective and tried to preserve data that it didn’t need to.

We will look into tightening this up a bit, but we always err on the side of data preservation, which can sometimes trigger events like this. We feel it is better than the alternative, where data can be lost.

22

In my environment, the client PC is a dedicated computer for the syncing purpose. We don’t access or modify content in the sync folder. In other words, we are using odrive to “backup” Box.com. The PC is not being used by any users. As a result, no one monitors the sync client to know whether it’s working or not. Sometime, it could takes week before I look at it again, e.g. install Windows Updates, etc. So, if the client stops working for whatever reason, we will continue having issues. Therefore, I would like to see you implement an option to turn of this “overprotective” feature for people like us who have special needs.

23

Hi @dancap,
Our data protections are something that is deeply embedded into the model, so not something that could be turned off. Ultimately we wouldn’t want to do this, even if we could, because losing data is a much more severe issue.

Since you are using this purely for backup, there are a few of options you may want to consider. These won’t prevent the scenario you ran into above since the protections checks are done in earlier stages, but they may be useful for your particular use case:

Disable local deletes: This setting can be used to prevent deletes in Box from being synced to your backup computer. Some folks have opted for this option so that all data is retained even if it is removed from the storage source.

Disabled remote deletes: This is similar to the above, except in the other direction. Since you are using this as a backup, you would probably never want any inadvertent deletes on the local computer to reflect to Box.

Disable local to remote file updates: Prevents any modifications to files locally from being uploaded to Box

24

I changed the last two settings and restarted the client. But I’m not sure if it will solve our problem because it says:

disableRemoteFileUpdates
default: false

… Note that new files, moves, renames, and deletes detected on the local disk will still reflect to remote cloud storage.

I would think the undeleted folders in local would be treated as “new files”, then hence will be uploaded to Box.

25

Hi @dancap,
Yes, these settings would not have prevented the scenario you saw on June 1st, which was due to sync timing (folder remotely deleted in the middle of download). They may just be settings you would like to have in place, considering your use case.