Schedule the sync process

Owned by Denise McGettigan
Last updated: Dec 12, 2023
3 min read

You can manually run the sync process at any time or set a time to run the sync regularly, using Windows Task Scheduler. When you schedule Sync, other options become available, as outlined on this page.

Schedule sync

The steps below are a basic guide, but you might also want to look online for Microsoft's instructions on using Task Scheduler.

  1. Create and save your sync file.

  2. Open Windows Task scheduler, create a basic task, give it a name and click Next.

  3. For the trigger, select how frequently you want to run the task. In this example, it will run every day at 10.01am.

  4. For the action, click Start a program.

    1. Browse to the location of the PhocasSyncCLI.exe file.

    2. In the Add argument box, enter the location of your sync file in quotation marks with -r at the beginning, for example:
      -r “c:\phocas\sync\sales\yourfilename.sync”
      Avoid using spaces in your file and folder names, as it could cause the task scheduler to fail. In the example above, the -r attempts to mitigate this risk.

  5. Click Next and Finish. Your sync will now run on a schedule.

  6. Ensure that the task runs even when you are logged out: Locate the task in the list, right-click on the task and click Properties, then on the General tab, select Run whether user is logged on or not and click OK.  

  7. (Optional) Test the new sync process.

Set an alert on Sync failure

To receive an email alert if a Sync fails, go to your personal settings and select Sync failures under Email notifications.

Set Designer builds to be based on scheduled Sync data

If data has been scheduled to sync regularly (for example each night), typically users expect the database at the other end to re-build almost immediately with this new data. For this to occur, a database must be set to build when a sync occurs.

There are two schedule frequency options applicable to Sync: After sync of any source in this design and After sync of all selected sources.

See Build a database for more information.

Only sync data items used in a database

After the initial sync of data, you can choose to only sync data items that are used in a Phocas database design in Designer (and exclude unused items). For example, if a Sync file has ten data items listed in the Data Items tab but only three have been used in a database, the unused seven data items will not be synced.

In Sync, select the Configuration tab and select the Only Sync Data Items… checkbox.