SyncToy failing silently because of long path name (& relatedWindowsFormsParkingWindow shutdown problem)

[Guest prepbgg@googlemail.com]

SyncToy failing silently because of long path name (& relatedWindowsFormsParkingWindow shutdown problem)

 

I have SyncToy (version 1.2.0.75) set to run "All Folder Pairs"

automatically from a Scheduled task.

 

I experienced three sets of symptoms:

 

1. The SyncToy automatic backup stopped working

 

2. On occasions, SyncToy would not start up when I tried to run it -

no errors were reported, the window simply failed to open.

 

3. On occasions, when I tried to shut down Windows XP, the shutdown

process would hang (fail) with a WindowsFormsParkingWindow error

message.

 

I believe that all three sets of symptoms were caused by one problem,

namely that the path name for one of the files which was supposed to

be backed up by SyncToy was too long for it to handle. I discovered

this by doing a manual "All Folder Pairs" run which resulted in a Path

Too Long message. I presume that when the automatic scheduled run

encountered this file it caused SyncToy to crash without shutting down

properly, resulting in symptoms 2 and 3 mentioned above.

 

I hope this helps someone who encounters the same set of problems as

me.