Sync differential filenames on identical files to link them?

[Sharky-PI]

Hi all, sorry if this has been asked, it was impossible to get any results from searching as all the words I tried (different filename same file) are too common!

Many filenames are corrupted on my NAS e.g. because one of my OSs generates screenshots with names like "Screenshot 2016-02-18 16:39:00.png", even though colons are usually terribly illegal filename characters. Ditto for mp3s with question marks.

Anyway, so, on the left, main PC: "Screenshot 2016-02-18 16:39:00.png"
On the right, NAS: "Screenshot 2016-02-18 16"

Both files are the same size & content, just the NAS has stopped parsing characters once it got to a naughty one. Currently I'm hitting F2 on the full filename to remove the colons, then copying that name, editing the offending version of the NAS to change its name to the same, so they link up.

I have the same issue where I'll have an album full of files like "Track 01.mp3" on the NAS, but on the PC I've named them. Rather than manually copy the filename, edit, paste, repeat, I'm finding it easier but massively more CPU/network intensive to just delete the NAS files and copy over the PC ones.

Is there any way to push filenames in order to link the files? And if not, could this feature be added somehow?

Thanks!

[Aaron]

Hello,

We require the file names to match in order to align, so there is no method to push since unaligned pairs wouldn't be recognized as a pair. It's on our wishlist to scan using other criteria, but this is not supported.

Alignment Overrides is a Pro feature which can align files of different names which match the override rule, but this rule must define different text explicitly. If you have random gibberish text appended to a name, that can be difficult to parse and would need a RegEx that matches that longer name in two parts. However, even if aligned, this would allow you to compare the files but not copy the file name; you would still need to manually copy the file or rename the file.

[Sharky-PI]

Apologies if I'm talking cross-purposes here - you're unsurprisingly a lot more up on the functionality & lingo than I am!!
The scanning is fine, this would be an extra feature to fix filenames so that they're recognised as pairs again.

I guess easiest implementation would be to ctrl-select both files then right click to have the option "copy filename left/right". They would then automatically link as they do currently.

A harder implementation would be to copy filenames left/right in bulk, with the machine doing (e.g.) size-based matching, possibly throwing up warnings if two sets of files were byte-identical.

[Aaron]

Hello,

This is related to your other thread, but we do actually have a manual align if you Ctrl+Click two unaligned files, then Align them. This would allow comparison, but as mentioned we don't support copying just the name. It is on our wishlist, and I'll add your notes to our entry on the subject.

[Sharky-PI]

Ok cool, thanks Aaron!

[Jeff2468]

I have wished for this for a long, time, too. With a similar use case. I have have pictures in two different places. If I rename them in one place getting the name into the second place is a pain. I'd be happy with a "rename from left to right" manual process like Sharky's "ctrl-select both files then right click to have the option "copy filename left/right". They would then automatically link as they do currently."

[Aaron]

Appreciated. I'll add your notes to our Customer Wishlist.