Q: What is a Simulated Run? What is a simulation?

A Simulated Run lets you run a profile but no files are actually copied, deleted, moved, or changed. Running a profile as a simulation lets you see what files would be copied, deleted, or moved. A log file is produced as per normal, and you are prompted as per normal, e.g. the Differences screen is shown. This gives you the opportunity to fine tune the profile before running it for real. For example, during the simulated run, you may see that a file will be deleted when you don’t actually want that to happen. You could then change your profile so that the file isn’t deleted, e.g. excluding it or filtering it out. A simulation is a risk-free way of testing your profile.

Note that a Simulated Run cannot find all potential problems as it doesn’t actually change anything. For example, if your NAS device cannot set file modification date & times correctly then a simulated run will not discover this because it doesn’t change files or the attributes of files.