Installing Donation Version of FreeFileSync to Replace Free Flatpak Version

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SITUATION BRIEFING: When I first installed FreeFileSync, instead of just downloading the free (non-donation copy) from the FFS website, I decided to install the Flatpak version I found in Gnome Software. I don't want to say necessarily that was a mistake—but it would turn out to be a minor inconvenience when I later purchased and installed the Donation Edition of FFS. 

I had only been using the free version of FFS for about a month when I decided to make a donation and opt for the Donation version of the software. Now, on the FFS web site I was reassured that I did not need to worry about uninstalling the free version before I installed the donation version—the paid version would install over the free version. That's true—as long as you installed the free version from the FFS website to begin with.

A brief side-road tour here. After I downloaded the zip file containing the Donation version of FFS, I unzipped it, then opened the newly-created file folder:

• FreeFileSync_11.12_[Donation_Edition]_Install.key
• FreeFileSync_11.12_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run

I must confess that after seven years of running nothing but Ubuntu Linux, I am still a little bamfoozled when it comes to installing anything that does not come from the Ubuntu / Gnome Software store, or that does not have .debi attached to it (I do install some software, such as LibreOffice, from the command line, but that's just because I want the most up-to-date version and I have long followed a specific set of instructions for the LO "updates.") At any rate, not finding anything in the FFS forum that gives explicit instructions on how to install the Donation Edition (which differs from the free version, which is a tar file), I decided to just double-click on the  .run file and see what would happen. Voila! The terminal launched and I answered a few installation questions within the terminal and simply clicked through the rest of the process, which was very brief and straight-forward. Now, here's where it get a little fuzzy, especially if you forget, like I did, that your current program is running in Flatpak. 

After I installed the Donation version I clicked on the Show Applications icon in Ubuntu and typed in FreeFileSync. The FFS icon, with which I was already familiar, popped up. I was not sure if this was the icon for the old installation of the free version, or the cion for the new installation of the Donation version. I clicked on it and sure enough it was the old (current) installation. Still not remembering that it was a Flatpak installation, I thought something had gone wacky with the new install.  Then I remembered that the new install had defaulted to \opt as the install location, so I went there and it appeared that only the Donation Version was installed within that directory. That is when I remembered that the free version was a Flatpak install. Next, using Gnome Software, I Removed the flatpak (free) version.

So I went back to the \opt directory, opened the Binary (Bin) folder, right-clicked on the FreeFileSync_x86_64 file and clicked on Run. Again, Voila! That brought up the Donation version of the program. I went to my Gnome menu bar and added the FFS icon to My Favorites. Mission accomplished.

Here's the kicker: Because my first install was a Flatpak, uninstalling it wiped out all my FFS Session shortcuts. There were only four or five; still, I was not happy that I had to recreate them, but that was entirely my fault, nothing to do with FFS. I expect I will not have this problem with future updates.