Sign in
Microsoft.com
 
Microsoft
 
 
 

locked
Why are there over 5gb of files in the holdingarea? RRS feed

 > 

  • Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Hello,
    Been using mesh for a while now and a few days ago i decided to sync my music folder between two machines. Now my C drive is running out of space because LM appears to be downloading all the files into a holdingarea folder on my C drive. Why is it doing this? Why isn't it just downloading them and moving them over to the folder where they belong?

    Is it safe for me to just delete all these files? If mesh needs to download that many files, i'd rather just copy them onto my thumb drive and sync that that way the first time and then let mesh keep them in sync there after.

    thanks
    Monday, September 28, 2009 7:55 PM

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    If the files are being synchronized and they already exist in the destination location, they are considered to be in conflict and get put into the holding area for you to address. Check the notifier for the destination Live Mesh folder on that machine and you should see information about any conflicts.
    If that isn't the case, I suggest submitting a bug report with logs from your machines.
     

    How to Submit Bugs and Live Mesh Logs

    Note that you probably won't get a response to the bug report, though. It will be transferred to the internal system to be assigned to the appropriate development group.

    -steve

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 2:36 PM
    Moderator

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    If the files are being synchronized and they already exist in the destination location, they are considered to be in conflict and get put into the holding area for you to address. Check the notifier for the destination Live Mesh folder on that machine and you should see information about any conflicts.
    If that isn't the case, I suggest submitting a bug report with logs from your machines.
     

    How to Submit Bugs and Live Mesh Logs

    Note that you probably won't get a response to the bug report, though. It will be transferred to the internal system to be assigned to the appropriate development group.

    -steve

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 2:36 PM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    How do i see conflicts? are the files themselves tagged with a small icon to indicate where a conflict is? or is there an actual report somewhere listing all the conflicts?

    I assume then i can just delete everything in that folder and manually sync the files myself the first time to avoid this? All the files on my home pc should be newest since i updated the id tags on them. I was more concerned that i didn't have any files that existed on my work machine that i forgot to download to my home machine.

    thanks for the help.
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:31 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    If you open the Live Mesh folder in Windows Explorer, the conflicts should appear in the notifier. Dealing with the conflicts, if there are indeed many, is a pain in the neck. Yes, you might want to remove the sync relationship (on the Live Desktop, choose to never sync with the laptop), manually copy over the files so that they are indeed exactly the same in both locations, then set up the sync relationship again to merge the files.
    I don't know why else you'd get 5 gigs of data in the holding area unless Live Mesh believe there to be a conflict. The process, as far as I know, is that files needing to be copied over go to the holding area one at a time and should be removed once the transfer is completed and the file updated in the Meshed folder. They would stay in the holding area in the event of a conflict. If a new file is transferring, it goes to the holding area and a placeholder file goes in the Mesh folder until the transfer is complete and the placeholder updates to the actual file.
    As I suggested before, if you don't see conflicts in the notifier for that folder, then a bug report (with logs) is the way to go even before poking at it more.
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:12 PM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    ok thanks. I will check to see if there are conflicts when i get home. If not, i'll file the bug report.

    thanks
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:36 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    You're welcome - do post back with your findings, too.
    Thanks!
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:49 PM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    ok, there are a bunch of conflicts. basically the files on the work machine have a newer date since they were copied there after the ones on my home machine.

    Is there anyway for the conflicts to just say 'keep items from this computer' and apply that to all further conflicts? rather then having to keep clicking that option for each file?

    thanks
    Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:56 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I wish that there were a better way to deal with conflicts. The current process is to deal with them one by one, which is very painful.
    I think that you may be better off changing the sync settings to not sync with the machine that is showing the conflicts and filling up the holding area. If the holding area does not flush, manually do so. Then manually copy the files between PCs so that they are indeed exactly the same, including the time stamp of the files. You may also want to check the settings in whatever media player you use to not update the meta data for media files (album art, song info, etc.) since that will cause files to need to sync between devices and you are bound to see more conflicts then if both PCs update the files between sync.
    Then, change the settings to sync the folder(s) again and merge them. it should not run into conflicts at that point for most, if not all files.
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Wednesday, September 30, 2009 12:22 PM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I lost count of how many times i clicked 'keep items on this computer' but finally cleared up all the conflicts. wasn't so bad - watched a movie while i kept clicking :)

    I do however occasionally update the metadata on the mp3 files to correct any mis-info so that they show up correctly in windows media player/my mp3 player etc. If i update a file on my home pc, i assume my work PC will then display a conflict message and I'll have to tell it to keep the files on my home PC at which point it will grab a copy of the file from my home pc?

    thanks for the help
    Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:33 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    If you update the metadata on one machine, that update will flow to the other machine. It is only when the file is updated on both PCs that a conflict arises once the initial sync has taken place.
    Rest that clicking finger now!
    -steve
    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
    Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:38 PM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Ok, perfect then. Now i just need a good remedy for blisters on my clicking finger :)

    thanks again for the help
    Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:00 PM