2BrightSparks

[mickyj]

SyncBack is not a Unicode program (SyncBackSE, however, is fully Unicode enabled). What does this mean? If you try to use non-English filenames with SyncBack then it may fail to copy or recognise them. For some European languages it may not be a problem, but for languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Czech, etc. you need to configure Windows to help SyncBack interpret the filenames.

Note that this relates to file and folder names and not the contents of the files themselves. The contents of a file can be anything in any language.

Also, if you are using a non-English version of SyncBack you must follow these steps otherwise the text may appear corrupt or truncated. For example, the Polish version of SyncBack will look strange unless the correct fonts are installed and selected (which will be done automatically if you follow the steps below).

The example below is for Chinese, but Chinese is just being used as an example.

For Windows Vista the following explains how to change the system locale:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/63fe39ac-f098-4322-ba60-8210af13464d1033.mspx

For Windows XP please follow these steps (also, please see the Alternative solution below):

• Go to the Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel)
  
  
• Run the Regional and Language Options applet:
  
  
  
  
• Go to the Languages tab, and enable the Install files for East Asian Languages (only if required):
  
  
  
  
• Go to the Regional Options tab and change the language setting (this is how SyncBack knows which language to use):
  
  
  
  
• Go to the Advanced tab, and select the language your filenames are in:
  
  
  
  
• Click OK. You will probably need to insert your Windows XP system then restart your system.
  
  
• IMPORTANT: After rebooting you may need to go back and change your settings again and reboot again! For some reason Windows XP loses these settings when you reboot the first time.
  
  
• You can see which language SyncBack thinks you are using by selecting Help->About from the main menu. The title displays the code for the language:
  
  
  

SyncBack will now correctly display and manage filenames in that language. You can get more details and instructrions (including Windows 2000) at this Microsoft web page.

Alternative

If you are using Windows XP or Windows 2003, or the above does not work (which may happen with a Chinese version of SyncBack on an English version of XP, for example) there is an alternative. Microsoft have released a free program called the AppLocale Utility. You can download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/apploc.mspx

Simply install this program, run it, and use it to configure SyncBack to use the language of your choice. For example, here's a Simplified Chinese version of SyncBack (thanks to Larry Ho) running on an English version of Windows XP:


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