File Sync shows no activity. Happened after Switching External Drives

Question

Our Azure backup runs off a folder on a external drive. We swapped the drive and the new one has all the same folder structure and files. However the online portal shows no activity for the file sync and it hasn't been syncing any data.

Answer 1

Hi Cory Fanta,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

it seems you’re encountering issues with Azure File Sync after swapping the external drive.

When changes are made to the Azure file share via the Azure portal or SMB, they aren’t immediately detected and replicated like changes to the server endpoint. Azure Files lacks change notifications or journaling, so automatic sync sessions aren’t triggered when files change. A scheduled job called a change detection job compares every file in the file share to its sync version. When changes are detected, a sync session starts. By default, the change detection job runs every 24 hours. For larger namespaces, it might take longer to determine which files have changed. To immediately sync changed files in the Azure file share, use the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet. This is useful for automated processes or admin-driven changes.

Would suggest you have a look at the "Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection" documentation for better understanding.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/azure-storage/file-sync-troubleshoot-sync-errors?tabs=portal1%2Cazure-portal

You need to check a few things to narrow down the issue,

• Check if you have enough free space in the disk
• The time to complete depends on the size of the namespace in the Azure file share
• Monitor the health of your Azure File Sync environment using the Azure portal or event logs on the server

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Answer 2

@Cory Fanta Thanks for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A.

Issue: Sync can't access the Azure file share specified in the cloud endpoint.

This error occurs because the Azure File Sync agent can't access the Azure file share, which might be because the Azure file share or the storage account hosting it no longer exists. You can troubleshoot this error by working through the following steps:

1. Verify the storage account exists.
2. Ensure the Azure file share exists.
3. Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account.
4. Verify the firewall and virtual network settings on the storage account are configured properly (if enabled)

Documentation: Common File Sync errors

Try the steps suggested above and let me know the results via comments.

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