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Backing up opened files

Syncrify can backup opened files but not locked files.

Applications on any machine can open files in several modes:

• Read
  
• Write
• Write-locked
• Read-locked

Consider the following scenario, which explains this concept in detail.

Assume ApplicationA opens fileA for writing, but does not prevent other applications from reading fileA. In this case, even though fileA is opened by ApplicationA, Syncrify will be able to backup this file.

Some applications put a read-lock on the files that it opens, which is done to prevent dirty reads. This type of lock prevents any other application on the machine from even reading files. When a locked file is encountered in Syncrify, it will ignore that file and will back it up next time, assuming the lock is released.

Which applications lock files?

The answer to this question varies from applications to application. In our survey majority of applications do not put a lock on open files and therefore can be backed up by Syncrify.