[FEATURE REQUEST] Сompare files only by name. Ignoring extension, size, etc

[levaclaus]

PLS add new variant off "comparision"
Сompare files only by name. Ignoring extension, size, etc

[David.P]

Yes please, that would extend the usability of FreeFileSync considerably.

I would actually prefer a variant "File time and name", thus ignoring file size on comparison.



This would also solve the problem that currently FreeFileSync is not usable for synchronizing to SharePoint.

[Plerry]

PLS add new variant off "comparision"
Сompare files only by name. Ignoring extension, size, etc

So, you would already consider left and right to be in sync if left you have a 10k file XYZ.pdf of date A and right a 220k file XYZ.xlsx of date B?
This sounds kind of absurd for a synchronization tool.

[David.P]

That's what levaclaus seems to be saying. My proposal is just to ignore file size when comparing.

[Plerry]

Only after posting my above reply, I noticed that I should better not have reacted to levaclaus's request, as it dated from 2020.

I understand the reason/logic behind your (David.P 's) request, and do certainly not classify your request as "absurd", although such comparison may be a bit risky to inattentive users.

[David.P]

It's mainly my fault, as I only just saw that the thread title says that the file extension (and date) should also be ignored.

Therefore, it probably makes sense to create a separate topic, which I have done here.

[levaclaus]

PLS add new variant off "comparision"
Сompare files only by name. Ignoring extension, size, etc

So, you would already consider left and right to be in sync if left you have a 10k file XYZ.pdf of date A and right a 220k file XYZ.xlsx of date B?
This sounds kind of absurd for a synchronization tool.

Yes
It won't sound so absurd if you need to synchronize 100 gigabytes of audio files by replacing the old NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3 with new NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.flac

These files have different sizes and different file extensions but the same name.

[Plerry]

> ... by replacing the old NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3 with new NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.flac

So, your proposed comparison variant would consider said files to be equal (because the pre-extension part is equal, and difference(s) in extension, size and/or date are ignored as per your request), while the required sync action nevertheless would need to be to replace the mp3-file by the flac-file.

Obviously, if both sides already hold an identically named flac-file, it will just as well be considered to be equal, but then suddenly the intended sync action is likely "do nothing".

You should not be asking for a new Comparison variant, but rather an additional Comparison result category (identical name; different extension), for which you can define its own Custom sync action.

Your described use-case has little to do with normal synchronization.
Don't hold your breath until FreeFileSync adds your requested feature!

[fredrikn]

I think an option to check only file date time & filename would a very good improvement. I have a good use case, I use freefilesync to add backup files into my onedrive folder and it works fine. But I have lately seen that freefilesync is always detecting that my files are changed probably because Onedrive is reporting some other file size I don't know why. The files are the same.
Another way would be to do a stored snapshot of the destination directory when the sync was done to compare with the next time you do a sync.

[azure55]

I also would like that feature, comparison using only filenames, be added. That could help circumvent some bugs such as modification time being altered to current time when transferring from Android to PC. That would allow the use case of transferring pics from a phone where each pic has a distinct filename (assuming a regular user who don't edit pics, just add or delete them).