I apologize, I am fairly new to this & am having trouble finding an answer to this, so hopefully someone here can assist me in what I want to do.
I’m trying to compare two folders but only want to compare specific files that share the same file name & skip the rest. For example, if both folders contain files named "report.txt," I want to compare only those files & ignore everything else in the folders. How do I do this?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
How to Compare Specific Files by Name in Two Folders?
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If you know upfront which files FreeFileSync (FFS) needs to Compare (and if necessary: Sync), you can list those files in your Include Filter.
You can do so manually editing your Include Filter (replacing the default * (=everything) by your list of files (relative to the root of your left and right base-location), or by running a Compare, select files that need to be Included, and use the Context menu (normally your right-side mouse button) and add the file(s) to the Include Filter.
If you can not tell which files FFS would need to Compare (and if necessary: Sync), there is no "direct" solution in FFS. FFS compares all files in the scope of the sync (i.e. all files that are included but not excluded). But Comparing all files (as opposed to only those that have a counterpart at the opposite side) will hardly be slower, even when comparing by Content (as opposed to by Size+Date).
For your Synchronization Settings (F8), you would need to select the Custom Sync variant.
and make sure the Use Database File To Detect Changes box is NOT checkmarked.
For the most left and right Difference category ("Item exist left side only" repectively "Item exists right side only") you select the corresponding sync Action "Do nothing" (by repetitively clicking the Action icon).
For the middle two Difference categories ("Left side is newer" and "Right side is newer) you select an Action matching you sync objectives.
You can do so manually editing your Include Filter (replacing the default * (=everything) by your list of files (relative to the root of your left and right base-location), or by running a Compare, select files that need to be Included, and use the Context menu (normally your right-side mouse button) and add the file(s) to the Include Filter.
If you can not tell which files FFS would need to Compare (and if necessary: Sync), there is no "direct" solution in FFS. FFS compares all files in the scope of the sync (i.e. all files that are included but not excluded). But Comparing all files (as opposed to only those that have a counterpart at the opposite side) will hardly be slower, even when comparing by Content (as opposed to by Size+Date).
For your Synchronization Settings (F8), you would need to select the Custom Sync variant.
- Custom.png (26.63 KiB) Viewed 376 times
For the most left and right Difference category ("Item exist left side only" repectively "Item exists right side only") you select the corresponding sync Action "Do nothing" (by repetitively clicking the Action icon).
For the middle two Difference categories ("Left side is newer" and "Right side is newer) you select an Action matching you sync objectives.
