rclone/docs/content/commands/rclone_sync.md

title	description	slug	url
rclone sync	Make source and dest identical, modifying destination only.	rclone_sync	/commands/rclone_sync/

rclone sync

Make source and dest identical, modifying destination only.

Synopsis

Sync the source to the destination, changing the destination only. Doesn't transfer files that are identical on source and destination, testing by size and modification time or MD5SUM. Destination is updated to match source, including deleting files if necessary (except duplicate objects, see below). If you don't want to delete files from destination, use the copy command instead.

Important: Since this can cause data loss, test first with the --dry-run or the --interactive/-i flag.

rclone sync -i SOURCE remote:DESTINATION

Note that files in the destination won't be deleted if there were any errors at any point. Duplicate objects (files with the same name, on those providers that support it) are also not yet handled.

It is always the contents of the directory that is synced, not the directory itself. So when source:path is a directory, it's the contents of source:path that are copied, not the directory name and contents. See extended explanation in the copy command if unsure.

If dest:path doesn't exist, it is created and the source:path contents go there.

It is not possible to sync overlapping remotes. However, you may exclude the destination from the sync with a filter rule or by putting an exclude-if-present file inside the destination directory and sync to a destination that is inside the source directory.

Note: Use the -P/--progress flag to view real-time transfer statistics

Note: Use the rclone dedupe command to deal with "Duplicate object/directory found in source/destination - ignoring" errors. See this forum post for more info.

rclone sync source:path dest:path [flags]

Options

      --create-empty-src-dirs   Create empty source dirs on destination after sync
  -h, --help                    help for sync

See the global flags page for global options not listed here.

SEE ALSO

• rclone - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.