What happens first?

As soon as you add a project, SyncNow takes its first look at your remote site - reading only, changing nothing.

What it does

1. It connects to your remote server read-only, staying inside the root you set.
2. It builds a first snapshot of what is there and writes it, with a journal, into the hidden .sync folder.
3. From then on it records every change - create, modify, delete, rename, move, copy, restore - onto your shared activity timeline.

It does not download, sync, copy, move or overwrite any of your files. This first pass is purely about seeing the site, so SyncNow knows the starting point that later changes are measured against.

On a large site the first scan can take a little while, because SyncNow is reading the whole project inside its root for the first time. After that, it just watches for what is new. If your timeline looks empty or wrong, check that the root points at the right place.