safely move synced folder

What is the best safe way to move a synced folder without causing data loss or confusing syncthing database?

I have the D: drive synced across 5 windows machines. To solve a few problems, i want to not share the D: drive at root level, and move everything to D:/Syncthing This will prevent it from trying to sync system folders that windows won’t allow. I’ve seen some very old posts that say to remove shared folder in syncthing, then move the folder, then re-add to syncthing. Is this the best way? Is there anything else I need to do to make sure it is done safely? Will this cause it to restart the database from scratch, meaning readding all 200,000 files to database?

I would say that this is the recommended way. Yes, the files will be re-added and re-indexed.

If you know what you are doing, you can simply edit the folder path in the Advanced Configuration. Do it only after pausing the folder and moving all files to the new location. Then resume. Please remember that this is not the recommended method.

one post had mentioned that they should be fully synced before trying it.

Should i wait till they are all at 100% synced?

Also, should I try to edit all 5 machines at once, or one machine at a time, and wait for it to finish?

Depending on the wife’s software that is using these files, I may need to use ignore functions rather than moving the files. Her software doesn’t deal well with files moving.

I likely need to block: recycle bin, System volume information, and a special server created folder for system restoring.

Are there other system files I may need to block?

This is what I would always ignore on Windows.

// Windows
(?d)(?i)$recycle.bin
(?d)(?i)config.msi
(?d)(?i)desktop.ini
(?d)(?i)system volume information
(?d)(?i)thumbs.db
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If I understand correctly:

// Windows - just a comment, ignored

(?d) - enables removal of these files if they are preventing directory deletion

(?i) - enables case-insensitive pattern matching - On Mac OS and Windows, patterns are always case-insensitive. So un-needed if i am correct.

Yes, unnecessary right now, but I just add it to be future proof. Windows 10 can have case sensitive folders already. There is always a possibility that someone adds support for case sensitivity on Windows to Syncthing later.

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