Synchronizing Folders

CuteFTP provides a wizard to allow you to synchronize the contents of a local folder with a remote folder and vice versa. The contents are matched accurately so that there is no difference in the contents between the folders. You can monitor more than one folder or synchronize multiple sites. You have to schedule and queue the required synchronizations. Folder Synchronization Wizard guides you through the steps required for synchronizing folders.

To synchronize folders

  1. On the main menu, click Tools > Folder Tools > Synchronize Folders (or press CTRL+F11). The Folder Synchronization Wizard appears.

  2. In the Enter the local path to synchronize box, click the folder icon to browse for the folder.

  3. In the Enter the remote path to synchronize box, type the remote path of the folder.

  4. To include the subfolders within the folder you want to synchronize, select the Include subfolders check box.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the Select the direction of synchronization box, click one of the following options:

    • Mirror Local keeps the local folder the same and changes the remote folder to match the local folder. This is the default selection.

    • Mirror Remote keeps the remote folder the same and changes the local folder to match the remote folder.

    • Mirror Both adds files to both the folders and puts the latest version of all files in both folders.

  7. Click Next.

  8. In the For matching filenames always box, click one of the following:

    • Use global overwrite settings. This is the default selection. This option uses overwrite settings configured for all sites in Tools > Global Options > Transfer > Smart Overwrite.

    • Overwrite. The transferring file replaces the destination file. When mirroring both folders, the most recent version of the file is kept.

    • Numerate. Both files are kept, and one is renamed with a number to distinguish between the two.

    • Skip. Ignores matching files and transfers only those files that are not present on the other system.

  9. In the Remote file names that differ only in case box, if the file names are identically spelled but differently cased, you can select one of the following:

    • Transfer first file only and skip others. >The first file transfers and the rest are skipped.

    • Numerate files. Both files are kept. One is renamed with a number to distinguish between the two.

    • Show rename prompt. CuteFTP prompts you to rename one of the identical files.

  10. To make the mirrored folder a strict duplicate of the source folder, select the When one way mirroring, delete the destination file if it does not exist in the source folder check box. This updates old files and deletes unused files. If you clear this check box, the extra files present in the mirrored folder are left in place.

  11. To prompt you before deleting the file, select the Always prompt before deleting check box.

  12. Click Next.

  13. To prevent CuteFTP from following symbolic links when mirroring subfolders, select the Ignore symbolic link check box. Select this option unless symbolic links are absolutely needed. If you clear this check box and a symbolic link points to a spot further up in the folder tree from where the mirroring began, you are stuck in an infinite loop.

  14. To compensate for a problem that occurs when trying to synchronize ASCII files residing on Unix file systems, select the Transfer all files in binary to compensate for ASCII file differences check box.

    Windows and UNIX differ slightly on how they store ASCII files, especially with regard to the End of Line (EOL) or line breaks in ASCII documents. This difference causes an otherwise identical file to be seen as "different" when performing a synchronization tasks because of size difference.

    All files are transferred in binary mode, which means that an ASCII file residing on a local system is transferred to the remote server with its EOLs intact.

  15. Click Next.

  16. Click one of the following:

    • To start synchronization of the folders immediately, click Run.

    • To start synchronization of folders at a specified time, click Schedule.

  17. Click Next.

  18. Do one of the following:

    • If you clicked Run, click Finish to start the synchronization.

    • If you clicked Schedule:

      1. In the Start on area, specify the date and time for the synchronization.

      2. To repeat the synchronization after a specified period, select the Enable recurrence check box, then in the Repeat every box, specify the frequency.

      3. Click Next. The synchronization settings appear.

      4. Verify the synchronization settings, then click Finishto save the settings or click back to edit the settings.

The synchronization task appears in the Queue Window.

To stop a synchronization task

  1. Select the task in the Queue Window.

  2. On the main menu, click Tools > Queue > Remove Selected.

To use filters with synchronizations

  • When you set up the Folder synchronization wizard, right-click in the pane you want to filter (local or remote), click Filter, and make sure that Enable filtering and Apply to file transfers are selected. Additionally, ensure that the filter definitions are in place when you set up the synchronization wizard. For more information, refer to Filtering transfers.