What are the bugs with Backup and Sync that InSync fixes?

#1

Hey there :grinning: This isn’t your usual post. Essentially, I’m interested to know if my bad experiences with Backup and Sync are shared by other people, and whether these bugs are not present on the Windows InSync. This is relevant here, because if InSync performs better, I would consider this to be the main reason to switch to using InSync on Windows, and to advise others to do the same.

Firstly, Backup and Sync sometimes creates a duplicate folder with a (1) at the end of the duplicated folder name, even though on the Google Drive web app there is only one instance of the folder. I think it happens when I move folders around.

Secondly, I have just seen Backup and Sync delete an important folder on my Windows Explorer (which is essential for my work), but the folder is not deleted in my cloud storage and in the Backup and Sync preferences, the setting is turned on to sync that folder (which also appears in the preferences). This happened when I deleted an empty sub-folder.

Overall, I have a low tolerance for Backup and Sync not working perfectly, and so far on my Linux machine InSync has worked perfectly, so now I am considering switching to InSync on Windows. Does InSync work better than Backup and Sync on Windows?

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#2

I can’t even use B&S on my desktop as most of the key features I would expect from such a piece of software don’t exist. Firstly Linux support as I do alternate between Windows and Linux from time to time. Secondly having multiple folder sync mappings. My Google Drive has several folders like Media, Docs, and Backups. All 3 are separate and I sync different folders to different devices, and to different drives on the same machine on my PC (e.g. Media goes to a cheap SATA SSD, docs and other small files live on an M.2).

I can’t promise that inSync is bug free, I’m still dealing with all the issues of the 3.0 release right now, though I never had issues with 1.5. But I don’t recall EVER having data loss issues. I might have had some duplicate files issues (I know others have), but no data loss which is key.

But despite all the issues, I can say that it never even crossed my mind to go back to the Google sync app. Its feature set is so borderline useless and so is the support that I would write my own sync software first (I started on it before finding inSync). And with the deprecation rate of Google software I think inSync is a better choice anyways. It does moderately concern me, the level of access inSync gets to my Drive and the seeming utter lack of privacy in the logs they sometimes ask you for, but so far so good.

I would recommend 2 things - firstly setup a “backups” folder in your Google Drive. Manually backup your data to that folder every few weeks (or more or less frequently depending on the sensitivity to loss). Put all of your other data in 1 or more other folders and only sync those folders through inSync, never let inSync touch the backup folder. Then you are protected against accidents. Then, just test it out! No better way to see how well it will work for you unless you try it :slight_smile:

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#3

Ugh. Small update. Forgot to knock on wood. Tried going back to inSync 1.5.7 tonight and it decided to wipe my Google drive. Just move everything in my photos folder to the trash. Luckily trashed items can be restored, but I’m getting a bit nervous about inSync recently after over a year of flawless functionality across multiple machines and operating systems :confused:

Edit: After reviewing what I did it might have been all my fault, not inSync’s. The point above about always making a backup when something automated has deletion powers over your files is still very valid :sweat_smile:

#4

Thanks for starting this discussion, @aidan! FWIW, we do get feedback that Insync works better than B&S :grin:

Good idea on the “backups” folder @EndlessDIY. We do imagine adding some form of backup feature in Insync – perhaps in the form of one-way syncing – where there’d be no/less chances of automated deletions

#5

While I appreciate the sentiment and usually enjoy new features, if the purpose of backing up my data is so that misconfigurations and code bugs can’t delete it, using the same piece of software to configure a backup is rather counter-productive IMHO. Misconfiguration could result in my data not being backed up (or not fully backed up, or not backed up on an acceptable schedule, etc), and code bugs can also delete my data on the way, or not properly upload the data in the first place (which is even worse because I believe I have a working backup solution when I don’t).

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#6

When moving large folders (with many sub-folders) and generally making many changes to my folder structure on the Google Drive web app, Backup and Sync doesn’t perform well. When I did this last year, Backup and Sync didn’t make the changes on Windows Explorer, and I ended up having to delete my files on Windows, and re-download them from Google Drive.

When I made significant changes to my folder structure now, Backup and Sync proceeded to download the files that were moved (and delete the files in the previous location), which costs time and data. A process that took about 10 minutes on the Google Drive web app will probably end up taking three hours to complete on Windows. It would have been more efficient for B&S to move the folders.

Does InSync move the folders?

This is the final straw. After this is complete, I’ll close Backup and Sync, and let InSync take over on Windows. After using InSync for a year (to experience whether the abovementioned issues are not problems), I’ll write my findings on softwarerecs.stackexchange.com . Thank you InSync for developing a Windows app which I’m sure is a better quality product than Backup and Sync (I’ll see)—Google really should have put more resources into B&S.

#7

Aidan,

What it seems you are saying is that Insync is better than Google’s own Backup and Sync client on Windows. Is this your experience? My Google Backup and Sync is prohibitively slow. Is Insync faster on Windows?

I’ve looked for your stackexchange post but haven’t seen one.

Marc Compere

#8

Hi Marc

I have used InSync on Windows for about 5 months now, and yes, I do find it’s faster. My friend thought it could be because Backup and Sync zips files before downloading them. I watch the Google-Drive tag on WebApps.stackexchange.com, and I do generally recommend InSync when answering questions there, as I feel that the InSync app runs better. (My username is ahorn.) I haven’t yet posted anything about it on SoftwareRecs.stackexchange.com as I’m not an active member there.

For the record, I use Linux much more frequently than Windows (I have three computers).

#9

Seven months down the line… and InSync has deleted my files automatically many times. I’ve raised this issue with Mia from the support team several times (whenever it happened), and shared my logs. I’m frustrated that I have no way of controlling this, or of finding out why it happens.

  1. In February 2020, one of my .tex files was lost (hard deleted) on Linux Mint.
  2. On 8 March 2020, I removed a large folder from my root directory on the Google Drive web app, which was also displayed in a child directory. I did not remove the folder from the child directory in that process, but InSync deleted the folder from the child directory as well.
  3. On 1 April 2020, InSync tried to upload my PDF on Windows, but it was 0 bytes. It got lost when I tried to sort it out.
  4. On 24 April 2020, an .xlsm file was duplicated in Google Drive when I edited it several times on Windows, instead of keeping the edits in the version history. I wasn’t sure why that happened.
  5. On 13 May 2020, I moved six folders to a child folder in the Google Drive web app, and InSync deleted four of them.
  6. On 14 May 2020, I decided to upgrade from version 1.x to version 3 on Linux Mint, as my trial Teams subscription that I initiated didn’t seem to be reflecting in the app. The new app merge process wasn’t user-friendly enough, as instead of checking my directory, I ended up downloading my entire drive again. I messaged Mia about a problem I had with InSync duplicating my photos in two of my folders—I unsynced the two folders, as everything else was fine. Even though 166GB took me two days to download, Mia advised me to delete it and try the merge process again.
  7. Today, 19 May 2020, InSync has now deleted the photos I had in those two folders I mentioned above. I found this disappointing. Also, it deleted folders after I moved them on my Linux Mint machine yesterday. I’ve been spending the whole of today looking through the Activity Pane, trying to figure out which of my files should be restored.

I’m finding it tiresome to keep track of when InSync will decide to delete some of my files, to restore them. Today was the final straw. I’m going to switch over to using Dropbox.