What is the problem you are having with rclone?
Windows builds of rclone are ignoring --copy-links starting from rclone 1.70. I noticed this the hard way after updating to latest rclone, then running the usual rclone job and having a part of my backup deleted.
Sample output:
.\rclone.exe sync C:\rclone_synced\ OneDriveBlibla_Crypt:rclone_synced --copy-links --create-empty-src-dirs --exclude-if-present .rclone_ignore --exclude-if-present .rustc_info.json --exclude .git --exclude ".*.parts" --transfers 4 --checkers 8 --contimeout 60s --timeout 300s --retries 3 --low-level-retries 10 --dry-run
2025/08/07 00:30:48 NOTICE: MyHome: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:30:48 NOTICE: Media: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:30:48 NOTICE: MiscStuff: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:30:51 NOTICE: OtherBackups/bla: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:30:51 NOTICE: OtherBackups/blu: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
^C after this
Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.
- os/version: Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 24H2 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 10.0.26100.4652 (x86_64)
- os/type: windows
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.24.4
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: cmount
Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
OneDrive with Crypt backend on top.
The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)
rclone sync C:\rclone_synced\ OneDriveBlibla_Crypt:rclone_synced --copy-links --create-empty-src-dirs --exclude-if-present .rclone_ignore --exclude-if-present .rustc_info.json --exclude .git --exclude ".*.parts" --transfers 4 --checkers 8 --contimeout 60s --timeout 300s --retries 3 --low-level-retries 10 --dry-run
But it can be simplified to
rclone sync C:\rclone_synced\ OneDriveBlibla_Crypt:rclone_synced --copy-links --dry-run
to replicate the bug, and it will still behave the same
The rclone config contents with secrets removed.
[OneDriveBlibla]
type = onedrive
token = {"access_token":"blabla","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"blabla","expiry":"2025-08-07T00:31:56.256741+02:00","expires_in":4592}
drive_id = blabla!bli
drive_type = business
[OneDriveBlibla_Crypt]
type = crypt
remote = OneDriveBlibla:HomeBackup
password = blabliblu
filename_encoding = base32768
A log from the command with the -vv flag
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.70.3" starting with parameters ["D:\\Users\\Alonso\\Downloads\\rclone-v1.70.3-windows-amd64\\rclone.exe" "sync" "--copy-links" "C:\\rclone_synced\\" "--copy-links" "OneDriveBlibla_Crypt:rclone_synced" "--copy-links" "--create-empty-src-dirs" "--exclude-if-present" ".rclone_ignore" "--exclude-if-present" ".rustc_info.json" "--exclude" ".git" "--exclude" ".*.parts" "--transfers" "4" "--checkers" "8" "--contimeout" "60s" "--timeout" "300s" "--retries" "3" "--low-level-retries" "10" "--dry-run" "-vv"]
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "C:\\rclone_synced\\"
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : Using config file from "D:\\Users\\Alonso\\Downloads\\rclone-v1.70.3-windows-amd64\\rclone.conf"
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : local: detected overridden config - adding "{12rtk}" suffix to name
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "C:\\rclone_synced\\" to be canonical "local{12rtk}://?/C:/rclone_synced"
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "OneDriveBlibla_Crypt:rclone_synced"
2025/08/07 00:41:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "OneDriveBlibla:HomeBackup/溕⬙扗皺ꊏ违䔛魒賟"
2025/08/07 00:41:16 NOTICE: AlonsoHome: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:41:16 NOTICE: Media: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:41:16 NOTICE: MiscStuff: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:41:18 DEBUG : OtherBackups: Directory modification time the same (differ by -822.3908ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/08/07 00:41:18 NOTICE: OtherBackups/bla: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links
2025/08/07 00:41:18 NOTICE: OtherBackups/blu: Can't follow symlink without -L/--copy-links