Comment 5 for bug 436760

I started using Ubuntu One 4 days ago. I thought I would try it at first just as a back-up facility until I got more familiar with it.

On my account there was only my own computer running Lucid Lynx conversing with my 2GB cloud.

I left Ubuntu One uploading a backup of the development copy of my web site plus my projects directory.

Today I discovered inexplicable broken links on my web site. I ran a link check and found that the web links didn't work because the referred file names had been changed. They had ".u1conflict" added to them. Fortunately, I caught the problem early and disconnected Ubuntu One. I have just spent a frustrating day correcting all the file names. There are almost 4000 files on my web site so it could potentially have caused a lot of havoc.

Firstly, there can have been not conflicts. There is no other computer involved on which a given file could have been independently updated in conflict with an update of the same file on my computer. So the conflict indications were definitely false.

Secondly, I think that some other means of recording conflicts would be a lot safer than changing file names on people's computers. Perhaps a conflicts registry file could be made accessible from the Ubuntu One client in a drop-down "details window" or something. There could be a conflict alert icon displayed on the Ubuntu One client panel also perhaps.

As to how the false indications of conflict could arise, my machine is on dynamic IP. Perhaps the cloud saw me on a different IP on a different day and concluded that it was a different computer. Nevertheless, my computer's Unix name would be the same.

I did disconnect and re-connect to Ubuntu One at one point. Perhaps this could have upset the synchronizing process. Also, perhaps more significant, is that once when I opened the Ubuntu One client, the Update Manager appeared and offered an update that included an update of the Ubuntu One client. Perhaps the updated client appeared to the cloud as a new computer(?).

I have had to cancel my Ubuntu One account for the time being because I cannot afford the potential difficulties that the wholesale changing of filenames could cause to my website and project development system.

I hope this helps with the continued development of Ubuntu One.