How to keep older files?

[andrej]

Hi,

This is newbie stuff, please excuse my ignorance. I would like to sync files in a several directories. As this are pictures, I noticed the same picture exists with a different timestamp, probably as a consequence of copying files among different disks. FreeFileSync proposes to overwrite older files with a newer version, but when it comes to pictures that is obviously wrong as I would like to keep the oldest and not the newest date. How can I instruct FreeFileSync to keep the oldest file when the file name and size are equal?

Cheers,
Andrej

[Plerry]

> How can I instruct FreeFileSync to keep the oldest file when the file name and size are equal?

FreeFileSync does not have such predifined feauture.
However, in your Syncronization Settings (F8) you can select to use a Custom sync variant.
For your use case, I would recommend
• Not to Use a Database File to Detect Changes
• For the Difference category "Left Side is Newer", select the Action "Update Left Item", the blue, left-pointing arrow, and for the Difference category "Right Side is Newer", select the Action "Update Right Item", the green, right-pointing arrow, such that it looks like below image (Note the middle two Action icons).

CustomSettings.png (27.92 KiB) Viewed 25 times

You can cycle through the available Actions for each Difference category by clicking the Action icon below a Difference category icon. Hoovering your mouse over a Difference or Action icon gives you tool-tips.

But be aware. Depending on the protocol and the hardware you use, overwriting a "newer" file with its "older" counterpart may still result in the overwritten file not getting the timestamp of the "older" file, but rather the timestamp of the moment of overwriting the "newer" file.

[andrej]

Thank you!