Avoiding Recursive Sync Nightmares in MEGA: A Cautionary Tale with a Happy Ending #1088
Description
After days of battling nested folder chaos, I finally uncovered the culprit: MEGA's sync GUI defaults to \MEGA as the cloud-side folder when setting up a new sync. This seemingly harmless default can lead to a recursive sync loop if your local folder is already inside MEGA.
What happened:
- I synced a local folder already inside MEGA to the cloud-side default \MEGA.
- MEGA then created a new MEGA folder inside the existing one… and repeated this recursively.
- Result: MEGA/MEGA/MEGA/... madness, broken sync logic, and a full re-download.
The fix:
- Set the cloud-side folder to \ (root) instead of \MEGA.
- This avoids nesting and ensures a clean, predictable sync relationship.
What MEGA should improve:
- The GUI should default to \ (root) or at least warn users when syncing into \MEGA.
- A tooltip or prompt like:
⚠️ “Syncing into \MEGA may cause recursive folder nesting if your local folder is already inside MEGA.”
Lessons learned:- Always double-check both local and cloud-side paths.
- Recursive sync loops are sneaky but solvable.
- MEGA CMD and Robocopy are powerful allies—but only if the sync logic is sound.