Fontbase copies fonts

Bugs
1

We use FontBase on 4 Mac computers. The data is synchronised via a Synology cloud. Recently, fonts have apparently been copied to the Fontbase folder (see screenshot). This should not actually be the case. Why could this be happening?

Mac OS 15.1.1, FontBase 2.21.

2

Hello @hm-zrh, thank you for your post and welcome to the forum :pray:
The screenshot didn’t go through, could you please re-attach it?
Also, would you happen to remember anything that happened just before this started occurring?

Thank you again,

3

[![Bildschirmfoto 2025-02Screenshot

Sorry, I forgot the Screenshot

4

And no: nothing special happened before this appeared. I also don’t know when or how often this happens. At the moment, FontBAse’s database seems to be in a mess. If one of us creates a folder on his Mac and inserts fonts, they no longer appear on the other machine or appear incomplete (e.g. only folder available but no fonts)

5

Thank you for the quick reply and the additional information @hm-zrh :pray:
The screenshot was quite helpful, judging by the contents it looks as if the same folders were added 3 times instead of once, hence the “- Copy” part in the name. If this hasn’t happened before I suspect either an accidental addition of the same folder by multiple users, or something inside the Synology NAS setup and workflow that changed during this time :thinking:
Would it be possible to try to reset FontBase settings following this guide Reset Settings — FontBase Tutorials and see if that would restore everything to as it was before?
This will not remove the extra “- Copy” folders, those would have to be deleted manually, unfortunately :pensive:

Thank you again,

6

ok, we have reset both computers in the office according to your specifications. Of course we will only see later whether fonts are copied again.
It’s just quite tedious that collections are not synchronised immediately. Instead - if I have understood correctly - they are only synchronised when you leave FontBase or start the programme. Have we understood this correctly? Because synchronisation is of little use this way. It should happen on the fly.

7

And what’s more: We have now set up both installations for the cloud folder again, unfortunately this no longer works at all, the invisible fontBase directory is no longer created (and therefore not synchronised). Any ideas on this?

8

That is how automatic collection sync works, yes, you are correct. We are working on making collection sync auto-update on the fly, but unfortunately it’s very tricky.

9

Hm, which invisible FontBase directory do you mean?
As a workaround, would it be possible to replace the missing directory with the backup one from before the app was reset?

10

As far as I understand, the collections are saved via a hidden file in the root folder of FontBase. but this is no longer created. Or is that not correct? How else are the collections synchronised on the various devices?

11

got it from backup: I meant the folder “.fontbase” with the file “FontBase-Collections.json” within. I is not created any more (after resetting FontBase)

12

By the way: it’s a bit tedious that the whole address of the root folder is not visible in the settings, so you can’t check whether the settings are correct.

13

sorry for the many posts :slight_smile: Of course the sync button was not active after the reset, now the file is created or updated again. Sorry for that.

1 Like
14

I see, good catch, if root folder path is quite long it won’t be completely visible, need to do something about this :pray:
The way to check this at the moment would be to right-click the “Folders” title in the left sidebar of the main font list, then selecting “Open root folder”.

Thank you again,