Syncing Desktop.ini and other hidden files between Windows Hosts

Support
1

Greetings to all.

I’m setting up my very first Syncting folder, but I’m having a issue with hidden/system files. This is the case:

Scenario:

  • I need to do a mirror copy of a folder to another host.
  • Both are Windows Server systems (2012 - source, 2016 - destination)
  • Folder on source system is on “Send Only” mode.
  • Folder on destination system is on "Receive Only"mode.
  • The source folder uses Desktop.ini file to map “hash-named” folders (like dkdjr-eeueue-39494) to human readable names.

Problem: When sync is done, Desktop.ini is not copied, leaving folder names on destination unrecognizable.

Question: It’s possible to sync Desktop.ini and other hidden/system files? If it is, how can be done?

In advance, thanks for you attention.

2

Syncthing doesn’t exclude any files from syncing by default (except for its internal files and folders), i.e. desktop.ini, etc. should all be synced. If they are not, please check your ignore patterns if those files aren’t ignored by any chance, and also make sure that there are no OS permissions in place that could prevent Syncthing from accessing those files.

3

Thanks for you answer.

I could confirm that desktop.ini is transferred in the sync job.

After search more about this behavior, I found this link How to get Windows to read copied desktop.ini file? - Super User and discovered that the problem resides in the fact that de “Read Only” attribute of the folders are not transmitted (even if “send extended attributes” is marked).

When I manually set this attribute on destination (cmd attrib +r ), Desktop.ini is read by the system.

Do you think there is any way to make this attribute to be set on destination?

4

No, not within Syncthing. You will need to run a custom script or similar to achieve this (e.g. through Task Scheduler).

5

Supposedly we should copy the read-only attribute, as part of the synthesized things Go does for us based on faking the Unix model on Windows. But as we saw in the issue with deleting “empty” directories with a custom icon, desktop.ini is more special than normal read-only files – more invisible, and more read-only – so I’m not sure what’s going on here exactly.

6

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