SyncFreeze

Temporarily pause file-sync services for a specified duration.

SyncFreeze is a Windows system tray utility that lets you pause and resume popular file-sync clients (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and more) via the tray icon or command line. You choose which services it controls in Settings. After the pause duration expires, the selected services automatically restart.

Supported Services

Select any combination of the following in the Settings screen:

Service	Process
Microsoft OneDrive	OneDrive.exe
Google Drive	GoogleDriveFS.exe
Dropbox	Dropbox.exe
Apple iCloud Drive	iCloudDrive.exe
Box	Box.exe
MEGA	MEGAsync.exe
IDrive	idwutil_64.exe
pCloud	pCloud.exe
Sync.com	sync-taskbar.exe

None of these clients expose a reliable command-line "pause" interface, so SyncFreeze pauses a service by stopping its process and restarts it when the timer expires (or when you resume). The exact executable path is captured when the process is stopped so it can be relaunched reliably. Dropbox is enabled by default.

Features

• Multi-service support — pause/resume several sync clients at once
• Settings screen — check off which services SyncFreeze controls
• System tray icon with right-click menu for quick pause/resume
• Command-line interface for scripting and quick access
• Visual indicator — green icon when running, red when paused
• Balloon notifications when pausing/resuming (can be disabled)
• Status dialog (double-click tray icon) with live countdown timer
• Single instance — CLI commands route to the running tray app via IPC
• Auto-resume on exit — if you close SyncFreeze while paused, it restarts the selected services

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Windows 10/11

Setup

pip install -r requirements.txt

Build standalone executables

pip install pyinstaller
build.bat

Two executables are produced in dist\:

File	Purpose
SyncFreeze.exe	CLI / launcher — prints output, exits immediately
SyncFreeze_tray.exe	Background tray process — spawned automatically by SyncFreeze.exe

Both files must be kept in the same directory.

Usage

Command Line

SyncFreeze.exe -t 5        # Pause selected services for 5 minutes
SyncFreeze.exe -t .5       # Pause for 30 seconds
SyncFreeze.exe -t 0        # Pause indefinitely
SyncFreeze.exe -r          # Resume selected services (overrides any timer)
SyncFreeze.exe -s          # Show current status
SyncFreeze.exe             # Launch tray app (no action)
SyncFreeze.exe -v          # Show version
SyncFreeze.exe -h          # Show help

The CLI process exits immediately after sending its command. If no tray instance is running, SyncFreeze_tray.exe is spawned as a detached background process so your terminal prompt returns right away.

System Tray

• Right-click — Context menu with preset durations and options
• Double-click — Status dialog with live countdown and Pause/Resume buttons

Tray Menu Options

Option	Action
Status...	Open status dialog (default action)
Pause 1 minute	Pause selected services for 1 minute
Pause 5 minutes	Pause selected services for 5 minutes
Pause 10 minutes	Pause selected services for 10 minutes
Pause 30 minutes	Pause selected services for 30 minutes
Pause 1 hour	Pause selected services for 1 hour
Pause indefinitely	Pause until manually resumed
Resume	Restart selected services immediately
Settings...	Choose which sync services to control
Notifications	Toggle balloon notifications on/off
About...	Version info
Exit	Resume selected services (if paused) and close

Settings

Open Settings... from the tray menu to choose which sync services SyncFreeze pauses and resumes. Each supported service has a checkbox; enable the ones you use and click Save. Your selection is stored in the config file and applied to every subsequent pause/resume (from both the tray and the CLI).

Coming soon: SyncFreeze will scan running processes and pre-select the sync services it detects, so manual selection becomes optional.

Configuration

Settings are stored in %APPDATA%\SyncFreeze\config.json:

{
  "notifications_enabled": true,
  "enabled_services": ["dropbox", "onedrive"],
  "service_paths": {
    "dropbox": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\Dropbox.exe",
    "onedrive": "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\OneDrive\\OneDrive.exe"
  }
}

• enabled_services — service ids SyncFreeze will stop/start (managed via the Settings screen). Defaults to ["dropbox"].
• service_paths — cache of each service's executable path, captured automatically when a service is stopped so it can be restarted. Well-known install locations are used as a fallback if a path hasn't been captured yet.

Config files from earlier versions (which used a single dropbox_path) are migrated automatically on first run.

Running from Source

python -m syncfreeze.main
python -m syncfreeze.main -t 5
python -m syncfreeze.main -s
python -m syncfreeze.main -r

Architecture

• Two-process design: SyncFreeze.exe is a short-lived CLI process; SyncFreeze_tray.exe is the long-running background tray process. This keeps the terminal prompt responsive and avoids shared-tempdir cleanup issues.
• IPC: Localhost TCP socket on port 49152 — subsequent CLI calls route to the running tray instance (no firewall prompt).
• Single instance: If a tray is already running, CLI commands are forwarded via IPC and the CLI exits immediately.
• Timer: Background thread with cancelable timer.
• Tray: pystray with Windows notification support.
• Tkinter thread safety: All dialogs run on a single dedicated Tk thread via a shared Tk root, preventing Tcl_AsyncDelete crashes on repeated opens.
• Process management: psutil for finding/killing sync processes, subprocess for restarting them.

License

MIT