Synchronized Browsing - Great, but...

I'm trying out WinSCP for the first time and enjoying the feature set, especially the "synchronized browsing".

However, I find that when I start a previously saved session, I get the message "Cannot open corresponding directory in the opposite panel. Directory browsing synchronisation failed. It has been turned off". I then have to manually turn it back on every time.

This occurs even though I've given the starting directories the same name (local and remote). Am I missing something?

Thanks for any advice. Great tool!

I have not been able to reproduce this behaviour. Can you write me simple example of steps that you do? Does it happen when you open first session in WinSCP or if it is already opened and you open second session? 'Synchronized Browsing' should be turned off on startup.

I regularly have the following message when using Synchronize Browsing:

Cannot open corresponding directory in opposite panel. Directory browsing synchronisation failed. It has beeen turned off.

It does not happen when the directory change is linearly up or down ((grand)parent/child):
e.g. from \1\1.4\1.4.3 to \1 or from \1 to \1\1.4\1.4.4 is OK
but it happens all the time when take a side step (brother/uncle/niece):
e.g. from \1\1.4\1.4.3\ to \1\1.4\1.4.4 directly fails

The same error message occurs when I use Open directory/bookmark with Sychronize Browsing on and taking a side step as above.

I use WINSCP 3.8.0 but had the same problem with previous versions e.g. 3.7.6
The client is Windows XP
The server information is
SSH protocol version = SSH-2
SSH implementation = OpenSSH_3.8.1p1 Debian-8.sarge.4
Encryption algorithm = aes
Compression = No
File transfer protocol = SFTP (v3)
------------------------------------------------------------
Can change permissions = Yes
Can change owner/group = No
Can execute arbitrary command = No
Can create symlink/hardlink = Yes/No
Can lookup user groups = No
Can duplicate remote files = No
Can check available space = No
Native text (ASCII) mode transfers = No
------------------------------------------------------------
Additional protocol information
The server does not support any SFTP extension.

but it happens all the time when take a side step (brother/uncle/niece):
e.g. from \1\1.4\1.4.3\ to \1\1.4\1.4.4 directly fails

I'm aware of the limitation. So far no-one has complained :-) I'll try to improve that, once you complain...

martin wrote:

So far no-one has complained

amazing, it's the only thing that annoys me in WinSCP. At first, I tought it was difficult to reproduce.

martin wrote:

I'll try to improve that

that would be nice, thanks :D

Quick suggestion for the bookmark/session problem (I already do this manually - the suggestion would be to make WinSCP do the same thing automatically):

When loading a directory set (either from bookmarks, or from sessions):
1 - turn off synchronised browsing
2 - navigate to the bookmark
3 - turn synchronised browsing back on

The other half of this issue - clicking around in the directory tree - isn't that easy, of course - doing the above will just break the purpose of synchronised browsing. I'm going to take a stab at the dark here and assume that 'synchronised browsing' only ever traverses one level to find its folders. So I'm thinking it'd probably take a fairly large rewrite to fix that. (Though it would be beyond awesome - this whole topic is the only thing I can think of that annoys me with WinSCP.)

For location profiles the above is a good idea. But not for plain bookmarks, where only one directory is chanfed.

Whilst you're technically right, I would assume two things:

1 - If you're opening a bookmark, you already know you're going to break browsing synchronisation.
2 - *Most bookmarks that aren't location profiles will not have a corresponding folder on the respective other side - since if they had one, they'd be location profiles. ;)

As such, my statement: For the overwhelming majority of bookmarks, the panel on the other side should not be navigated away from, either because (1) we don't know where the user wants to navigate to, and shouldn't assume, which means staying where we are, (2) it's in fact intended that way (e.g. you have a "site backup" and "new version" folder locally, with the same folder placing on the remote FS).

So I'd say for bookmarks, the same should happen, and later, when a 'deep synchronisation' is implemented, you could add a checkbox in the "open bookmark" dialog, unchecked by default, that reads 'perform (deep) synchronisation,' or something clearer -- to allow for the stray 1% of bookmarks intended that way.

(* -- I'm assuming the user knows about location profiles, mind you - and that's not necessarily given.)

What would you say? :)

Pardon the double post, but a different issue's just cropped up -

I was just busy using synchronised browsing, and the second I changed folder, my (FTP) connection failed. When I confirmed the dialogue for it to reconnect, it did, and I was in the respective folders I'd clicked to, however, I got the message that the corresponding directory could not be found and that directory browsing would be turned off. My guess is that it tried to find the clicked folder again, after reconnection, even though it was already inside it.

Just a head's up - no biggie. :D

WinSCP version 4.0.2, Norton Commander interface.

I don't have the exact error message, since I was only aware that it HAD changed properly after I'd clicked the message away.

pinkgothic wrote:

As such, my statement: For the overwhelming majority of bookmarks, the panel on the other side should not be navigated away from, either because (1) we don't know where the user wants to navigate to, and shouldn't assume, which means staying where we are, (2) it's in fact intended that way (e.g. you have a "site backup" and "new version" folder locally, with the same folder placing on the remote FS).

Makes sense :-)

This feature has been implemented already. It will be included into the next major release.

in v4.2.5:

* Synchronized browsing can handle change to different directory branch. 101

Wow, you did it! The single most annoying bug has been crushed! :D :D :D