Renaming Folders Causes All Contents to be Re-Copied

Posts: 5 · Maze 29 Aug 2018, 20:40

Hi all,

I'm having a problem with FreeFileSync. I'm not sure if it could be because I need to update it to the latest version.

Basically whenever I change the name of a folder, instead of simply updating the folder name on the drive I am syncing to, it deletes & re-copies that whole folder, including the entire contents. This is obviously really annoying, as sometimes the content of the folder is quite large, so I end up having to let it sync for ages just because I changed a folder name.

Can anyone offer any insight on this?

Thanks a lot!! It's much appreciated.

Maze

Posts: 2451 · Plerry 30 Aug 2018, 06:40

Did you try tick-marking "Detect moved files" in your Sync-settings (F8)?

Posts: 5 · Maze 4 Sep 2018, 12:25

Hi Plerry. No, I didn't try that. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it & let you know how it goes. Thanks a lot!

Posts: 5 · Maze 5 Sep 2018, 12:49

Hi again. I ticked that box but when I press sync it's still showing that 18,000+ files need to be removed & recopied!.... (They're all files that I simply moved/renamed the folders of). Do you know what's wrong...?

Posts: 2451 · Plerry 5 Sep 2018, 14:37

FFS detects moved files by setting up (and maintaining) a database of all the files in your left- and right-location.
The first time FFS runs a mirror-sync with "Detect moved files" enabled (or runs a two-way sync, which always uses the database), the database is not there/filled yet, so it can not (yet) detect if files have moved. Only the second time the sync is run it can compare the content of the database, representing the status per the end of the previous sync, with the present status and potentially conclude that files have moved.
So, you best run your first sync with "Detect moved files" enabled with the smallest possible changes to the status per your previous sync.

Posts: 5 · Maze 6 Sep 2018, 11:24

Oh dear.. It would have been helpful to know that at the offset! But now I guess I should just run the program... Gonna take ages with 18k files!... Thanks for your help. I'll let you know if the second sync I do with a renamed folder/moved file works.

Posts: 5 · Maze 6 Sep 2018, 21:20

Hi again! I've just completed the 18k file sync, & then to test that it can now detect moved files/folders with changed names I changed the name of one of my folders - but when I go to sync again it still proposes that it delete all the files in that folder & re-copy them to the new folder!...

Posts: 143 · Radish 10 Sep 2018, 14:42

Maze, I think you might be missing something here. When you say "...but when I go sync again it proposes..."

Seems to me, when you mention "proposes", that you mean are not taking the final step and pressing the "Synchronise" button to see what FFS actually does. Do that, and once it is completed, then look at the log that gets generated and you should find that, for files that were in a renamed folder, that the files were simply moved to the new folder location, not deleted then copied anew.

FFS does have some of the symbols for what will be done confused a bit. It shows a 'delete' symbol when all this is going to happen is a 'move' gets performed. Something that really needs reworking in the future -- show accurate symbols.