Creating a Sync

To set up a Sync, choose a source and a destination from the folders within your site, on a Remote Server or Agent, or on a child site. Identify any other Sync, Automation, or remote process that uses those files. Coordinate their work so a source is complete before pickup and remains available until every required consumer has finished. Use separate paths or non-overlapping file patterns for independent work; see Concurrent Access for examples of conflicts and handoffs.

Any Site Administrator can add a new Sync to your site. Workspace Administrators can add Syncs within their Workspace.

Select options for how the Sync will be triggered.

Configure optional include and exclude patterns to control which files are affected by the Sync. You can also provide a human-readable description for the Sync to make sync management more convenient.

Who Can Create Syncs

Only users with admin-level access can create and manage Syncs.

Site Administrators can create and manage all Syncs. Workspace Administrators can create and manage Syncs for folders within their Workspace. Folder Administrators can create and manage Syncs for folders they control.

Changing a Sync's source or destination controls which files are transferred and where they are delivered. Treat Sync administration as data access within the administrator's permitted scope, even when the person maintains transfers without opening files in the Web App. Workspace administration lets you delegate a team's integrations together with access to that team's files.

Source Folder

The source folder is where files are synchronized from.

The source folder can be a folder in the current site (including a Remote Server Mount folder), a folder on a Remote Server, a folder on an Agent, or a Workspace. Site Administrators can sync from any Workspace as the source; other users can only sync from Workspaces they have access to. Syncs created by a Site Administrator in a parent site can use a Child Site for the source folder.

Site Administrators can also choose Malware Quarantine as the source when your site has files that Malware Scanning has quarantined. It opens a read-only file view that starts at the quarantine folder, and you can select the whole folder or a single subfolder.

Syncing a copy out is how you get a quarantined file to a security team, preserve it as evidence, or recover a legitimate file caught by mistake. Nothing else in Files.com releases a file from quarantine.

Destination Folder

The destination folder is where files are synchronized to from the source folder.

The destination folder can be a folder in the current site (including a Remote Server Mount folder), a folder on a Remote Server, a folder on an Agent, or a Workspace. Site Administrators can sync to any Workspace as the destination; other users can only sync to Workspaces where they have write access. Syncs created by a Site Administrator in a parent site can target a Child Site for the destination folder.

Malware Quarantine is not available as a destination, because nothing can write into the quarantine folder.

When the Destination Folder Has Restrictive Folder Settings

A Sync that pulls files into a Files.com folder is subject to that folder's folder settings. When the folder is set to Limit Uploaded Files To Certain File Extensions, for example, only files matching the allowed extensions sync successfully. Check the destination folder's settings before you create the Sync.

When syncing files to a folder with folder settings that alter file contents or filenames (e.g. GPG Encryption, GPG Decryption, or Filename rewriting rules), you must enable the option to delete files from the source folder after copying.

To prevent repeatedly syncing the same files every time the process runs, your site will not start a sync to a destination folder that alters file contents or filenames. This prevents high transfer usage charges for a process that would offer no benefit to you.

After Copying

After Copying controls whether the source retains files that are available at the destination. Choose keep when the originals must remain available at the source, or delete when the Sync should clear files from a pickup folder once the destination has a matching copy.

With delete selected, the Sync either transfers a file successfully and then deletes its source, or finds a file with the same name and size already at the destination and deletes the source without transferring it. Deletion is decided per file during the same run. The existing destination file counts as the copy regardless of who or what put it there, so the Sync can clear an already-delivered file without transferring it again.

This decision uses the same filename-and-size comparison that selects files for transfer. Matching names and sizes do not establish that two files have identical contents. Choose delete only when that comparison is sufficient for your workflow to remove the source, including when other people or processes write to the destination.

A source file stays in place if its transfer fails, if include or exclude patterns leave it out, or if the Sync skips it because of a case-insensitive name collision on either side. A matching destination file is a different result: with delete selected, Sync Logs record its source removal as Delete Source with the message File already exists on destination.

If you choose to delete, you can also Delete empty folders from the source when syncing. When syncing files from a source that creates uniquely named folders, we recommend enabling this feature so that your source folder does not accumulate unused empty folders. A Sync with this feature enabled deletes any folder it finds already empty on the source. It does not create that folder on the destination.

Folders emptied by source-file deletion stay on the source until a later run removes them, because each run works from the folder listings taken when it started, and a folder emptied during a run is only seen as empty by a run that comes after it.

End-Of-Sync Trigger Filename

Some Managed File Transfer (MFT) services require delivery of an empty file, known as a trigger file, to signal that data transfer is complete and further processing can begin.

Specifying a Trigger filename enables delivery of a zero-byte file to the sync destination once the sync has successfully finished.

The trigger file is the last file delivered, after all other files have been transferred.

By default, the trigger file is only sent when the sync transfers at least one file. You can configure the sync to send the trigger file even when no files are transferred. Use the Always Write Trigger File option when downstream systems need to receive a signal regardless of whether any data moved.

Starting the Sync

How a sync starts is set by its trigger: timing of its own, a shared Schedule, a recurring interval, a call from an Automation, or a manual run.

You can start a Dry run to simulate the results of a Sync without performing any file transfer or modification actions.

Automatic Interval type Syncs start running immediately when they are saved or enabled, unless the Sync is disabled or already running.