FreeFileSync Forum

I see, Zenju. Thanks. But man, a big loss of data (photos) to me.....

I still would argue that if folders are only partially equal, then when one clicks the Equal tab, a warning note could saying..."Remember, this is a list of FILES that are equal, other FILES in this FOLDER NAME may exist or be ...

Consistency here is the problem? When the folders ARE actually equal (all files are in both folders) all files are shown in the columns below the folder name. But when the folders are not actually Equal, the folder name is still shown and any files that are equal are shown.

Same behavior, yet it ...

Yes, very big issue. If folders are actually not equal, FFS should not indicate that they are.

Your observed behavior is correct, FreeFileSync will not consider child items when categorizing a folder pair, but only the immediate folder objects.
FFS DOES list child items (all files in folders and subfolders) except, as my test shows, as long as one folder of same name is not empty.

The ...

When comparing two directories with multiple folders, FFS calls folders of
same name EQUAL when one is actually empty and the other is not.

The test: D:\ has many folders and subfolders all containing files, except
for one folder. "Folder A" in ....\pictures IS EMPTY and same-name
"Folder A" in ...

Correction:

I first compared d:\....pictures to d:\....videos and the result was that
the folders named "folder A" in each of these locations were equal.

Just now compared d:'''\pictures\folder A" to "....\videos\folder A" -
that is only the two folders in question rather than all folders in ...