Checkbox request: "Skip copy of open files on Windows machine"

I've been using WinSCP a lot to move large files from Windows machines to a unix server. I love this application, but am having this problem over and over.

Everything works great, except WinSCP cannot optionally seem to "skip" windows files that are currently in use or open. More times than not, I find the "Keep remote directory up to date" feature stopped because WinSCP tried to copy a file that is in use. Even worse, when I'm using it for very large files (like 20 GB files), WinSCP will copy the same file over and over as it gets bigger and bigger on the Windows machine side. This is a waste.

I've seen all these crazy workarounds that involve using temporary file extensions and such but why are they necessary? Why can't WinSCP just tell when a file is not open and _then_ do something with it?? This information is available from the OS.

What would be great would be a checkbox in the "Keep windows up to date" or in the "Session settings" dialog that simply says, "Skip transfer of open files on the source side".

This would save me a significant amount of frustration, and I suspect others as well!

Thanks, Marc

Will consider this.

Note that the latest version of WinSCP has Continue on error option:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_keepuptodate

martin wrote:

Will consider this.

Note that the latest version of WinSCP has Continue on error option:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_keepuptodate

Looking forward to this feature!

I think you'll be the first to have this type of "don't touch open Windows files" feature. Think about all the people creating all these crazy workarounds (using temporary extensions, etc) because no SFTP app can just check the "file is open" state.

btw I have been trying and noticed the "continue on error" issue is pretty aggressive. It actually somehow is causing other Windows programs to fail just from WinSCP "touching" the file, trying to copy it. Probably a Windows thing, but WinSCP tries like every 5 seconds over and over, which somehow causes problems in the apps that have the file open

marc