[Tutorial]:Synching to Internal and Micro SD Memory Using FreeFileSync

[Pennhaven]

[edit 2013-03-25]CAUTION - When installing FreeFileSync use the custom installation option and take care to deselect the optional third party add-ons.

I recently upgraded to the latest version and inadvertently installed several obnoxious applets, including Conduit, MyFreeGames, OpenCandy, plus a PITA Bing Firefox exploit. Fortunately I was able to clear it all up with AdwCleaner.[/edit]

[Moderators: I'm posting this in the Clip forum but the topic would also apply to other players with an external memory slot.]

My music library had just about exceeded my 32GB micro SDHC card capacity, so I came up with a way to automatically sync from my PC to both internal and external memory as I continue to add more music. The plan is to wait until I fill up the internal 8GB before buying a 64GB card. Then prices should be considerably lower.

Previously when I used both memories my process was to separate my library alphabetically and manually drag and drop new music to the two memory locations.

My more recent process, while just using the external memory, has been to run Microsoft SyncToy, which is completely automatic once set up. I thought I would eventually configure SyncToy with filters to automatically sync to both locations, but it seems Microsoft is no longer maintaining SyncToy. So I looked around for other alternatives and found FreeFileSync which is a lot more powerful and is undergoing active development.

FreeFileSync is fairly complex so I don't suggest this for folks who aren't at least somewhat tech savvy. But for those who are interested here is a rough tutorial. You can follow it if you have your music organized in folders (sub-directories) for each artist.

First erase all music sub-directories and files from both memory locations on your player. But make sure there is still a directory named "Music" in the root of both the internal and external memory.

Download, install, and run FreeFileSync.

Next create two folder pairs in FreeFileSync, one for each memory location on your player, with the source for both being the location of the music library on your PC.



Then set up filters for each folder pair similar to:

Internal Memory



External Memory



The above examples show how I have filtered all artists beginning with the letter "T" through "Z" to go to the internal memory, and all other artists with the exception of some beginning with the letter "S" going to the external memory. For fine tuning I also split out the artists beginning with "S" to go to each memory location. I don't recommend you get that granular, but the examples show it's possible if you want to.

Then use the Compare function of FreeFileSync to see if the filters you've set up split your library in roughly the proportion of the memory available in each location. If not you should be able to adjust the filters until you have approximately the split you want.



The global Filter at the bottom of the application window includes default exclusions. You may also set it to filter out other extraneous files that you don't need on your DAP.



Then set the Synchronization settings to Mirror with Permanent Deletion handling.



Then click on the Synchronize button.

FreeFileSync will track the progress.





Finally save your Configuration settings at the lower left of the FreeFileSync window with a file name specific to the player you are syncing to.

From now on, until your fill up either memory location of your player, when you add new music to your library you should only need to load this configuration and run it to sync the player.

As I said this is a very rough tutorial, and I don't have enough experience yet to guarantee long term results, but I thought it was still worth sharing. Please proceed at your risk. Though probably the only thing you have to risk is your free time.

If you do try this please add your own experience to this thread.

[CrowdAds]

[dave61430]

I use a freebie called winmerge for maintaining backup. Fairly straightforward to use and can filter out files/directories to be ignored. Configuration setup can be saved.

[skip252]

I've moved your tutorial to Software. I think it's the more likely place for it. There's any number of devices now that have internal and external memories that people are interested in filling in an "overflow" fashion. This should work as well for an Android device or phone with an external card.

Nice job on explaining a basic setup but as you say there's a lot more that can be done if you have the patience and savvy to dig in. I tried a number of file comparing syncing software that can do this a few years back and the slowness of doing it over USB caused me to drop it. I have a card reader and much faster cards now so I'm believing that may speed things up.

Thanks for sharing.

[Pennhaven]

Originally Posted by skip252

...Thanks for sharing.

OK. You're welcome. I edited it a bit to clean up some of my sloppy writing.