This is my biggest issue with BS also (having only started testing it today). It is definitely an issue, and it definitely nukes files, apparently permanently with no recourse.
I tested it out like this, on two machines (Mac Pro No. 5 and MacBook Pro No. 5, sorry for the confusingly similar names):
[mason@MacBook-Pro-No-5 ~]$ cd BTSync/
[mason@MacBook-Pro-No-5 BTSync]$ echo 'Hey man, this is draft one. ' > my_awesome_file.txt
Here I waited for it to sync and confirmed the same file was on both machines.
Then, in two terminal windows:
[mason@Mac-Pro-No-5 BTSync]$ echo 'hello from Mac Pro at remote office' >> my_awesome_file.txt
[mason@MacBook-Pro-No-5 BTSync]$ echo 'hello again from local office' >> my_awesome_file.txt
I pressed Return as close to simultaneously as I could in each window, with the MacBook Pro No. 5 machine being second.
While it sync'd, I just had time to visually confirm that the contents of the two files were as expected, and different from each other.
MacBook Pro No. 5's file:
Hey man, this is draft one.
hello again from local office
Mac Pro No. 5's file:
Hey man, this is draft one.
hello from Mac Pro at remote office
A second later, the sync was complete. The file from Mac Pro No. 5 was completely gone, and both machines's my_awesome_file.txt now contained:
Hey man, this is draft one.
hello again from local office
I then looked in the .SyncTrash dir on both machines, to see if the nuked file made it in there, but it did not.
Conclusion: Modifying a file on two machines will cause one of the conflicting versions to be annihilated permanently. Furthermore, this can happen nearly instantaneously, making it unlikely that any backup mechanism would be able to preserve the 'losing' version of the file.
Thoughts: I think this is a potentially serious problem and I hope they fix it. Still, to me personally, this is probably preferable to my main problems with Dropbox (slow speeds and utterly broken symlink behavior, as discussed elsewhere in this thread). Overall I am still pretty excited about this product.
I tested it out like this, on two machines (Mac Pro No. 5 and MacBook Pro No. 5, sorry for the confusingly similar names):
Here I waited for it to sync and confirmed the same file was on both machines.Then, in two terminal windows:
I pressed Return as close to simultaneously as I could in each window, with the MacBook Pro No. 5 machine being second.While it sync'd, I just had time to visually confirm that the contents of the two files were as expected, and different from each other.
MacBook Pro No. 5's file:
Mac Pro No. 5's file: A second later, the sync was complete. The file from Mac Pro No. 5 was completely gone, and both machines's my_awesome_file.txt now contained: I then looked in the .SyncTrash dir on both machines, to see if the nuked file made it in there, but it did not.Conclusion: Modifying a file on two machines will cause one of the conflicting versions to be annihilated permanently. Furthermore, this can happen nearly instantaneously, making it unlikely that any backup mechanism would be able to preserve the 'losing' version of the file.
Thoughts: I think this is a potentially serious problem and I hope they fix it. Still, to me personally, this is probably preferable to my main problems with Dropbox (slow speeds and utterly broken symlink behavior, as discussed elsewhere in this thread). Overall I am still pretty excited about this product.