Wrong Time Displayed

[Rando]

Hello,

When I compare files many are given as different as the source: time is one hour ahead.
But wrongly.



What am I doing wrong?
I tried also to ignore daylight savings and/or timezone differences but nothing changed.


I'm using the latest 64 bit Version 4.2.6 (build 23150).

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks for the report. What type of device is Y:\? Is every file present showing the one hour difference between Windows Explorer and BC4? Please note that BC4's timestamp is the Last Modified timestamp (not Created, but still an hour off). If you load up Windows Explorer, this shows a matching timestamp to Properties or BC4?

[Chris]

If you open a command prompt and run DIR on the same folder, does the time match the display in Beyond Compare?

Windows Explorer in newer versions of Windows displays file times based on if daylight saving time (DST) was on or off at the time of the file timestamp. Beyond Compare displays time based on if DST is on or off at the time you're displaying the file time. DIR in a command prompt should match Beyond Compare's behavior.

For more information, see The Old New Thing: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/old...308-00/?p=5023

[Rando]

Hello,

Thanks for the report. What type of device is Y:\? Is every file present showing the one hour difference between Windows Explorer and BC4? Please note that BC4's timestamp is the Last Modified timestamp (not Created, but still an hour off). If you load up Windows Explorer, this shows a matching timestamp to Properties or BC4?

Hello Aaron,

Sorry for my late response.
Thank you for your reply.
To answer your questions:

- Y is a network folder on another PC.
- Not every file present showing the one hour difference between Windows Explorer and BC4.
- The timestamp in Windows Explorer match the timestamp of Properties:

[Rando]

If you open a command prompt and run DIR on the same folder, does the time match the display in Beyond Compare?

Windows Explorer in newer versions of Windows displays file times based on if daylight saving time (DST) was on or off at the time of the file timestamp. Beyond Compare displays time based on if DST is on or off at the time you're displaying the file time. DIR in a command prompt should match Beyond Compare's behavior.

For more information, see The Old New Thing: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/old...308-00/?p=5023

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your reply.

You're right.
The time in DIR match the display in Beyond Compare.



But how can I resolve all these conflicts?
The real time is the one in the filenamename .. in above case 20140102_141831.avi --> 14.18

[Aaron]

Hello,

Daylight savings can be tricky to tackle since those are the real timestamps. It generally involves deciding if you want to ignore differences of exactly 1 hour (with the Session Setting -> Ignore Daylight Savings) or find these differences and use Touch to manually set timestamps. We have a KB article going into more detail here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_dst

[Rando]

Hello,

Daylight savings can be tricky to tackle since those are the real timestamps. It generally involves deciding if you want to ignore differences of exactly 1 hour (with the Session Setting -> Ignore Daylight Savings) or find these differences and use Touch to manually set timestamps. We have a KB article going into more detail here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_dst

Hello Aaron,

Session Setting -> Ignore Daylight Savings does not make any difference.

Would it be possible to add a new option in BC for Windows: Windows Daylight Savings?

- Consider Windows Daylight Savings
- Consider Command Prompt Daylight Savings (DOS) --> default
- Ignore Daylight Savings

Thanks.
Have a nice day.

[Aaron]

Hello,

This option does not intend to update or alter the timestamp value, but if it is aligned to the same file that is off by one hour (because it is a different source that isn't hitting the same issue), then it would ignore that specific, 1 hour difference in timestamps.

[Rando]

Hello,

This option does not intend to update or alter the timestamp value, but if it is aligned to the same file that is off by one hour (because it is a different source that isn't hitting the same issue), then it would ignore that specific, 1 hour difference in timestamps.

Hi,

Yes, I know but it didn't do what I wanted.

- The files on the network folder had one hour difference.
- The files in the backup folder had the correct time (maybe because I did the backup of these files when Daylight Savings was not active)

[Zoë]

Hi Rando,

The knowledge base article is a bit out of date, and we'll need to fix that.

The core issue is that Explorer and the command line calculate the timestamps differently. The command line shows dates based on whatever the current timezone offset is regardless of the file's time. Explorer shows uses the offset active when the timestamp is set to.

Our long term plan is to change the behavior to always match Explorer and use the appropriate DST offset for each timestamp. At that point the "Ignore daylight saving difference" setting should largely be obsolete. Unfortunately, the current behavior of a single offset affects basically all of our date handling throughout BC, so fixing it isn't trivial. It's on our wishlist, and is something we actively want to fix, but it's had to take the backseat to other high priority work.

For now, the "Ignore DST" setting will make BC treat the two timestamps as equal, but there's no way to adjust the display itself. If the setting isn't working for comparison purposes, please let us know how.

[URGreat]

Hi Zoë.

I understand some of what you say but for me, it doesn't seem to apply.

Here is how I manage my files.
For over a decade, I have a main PC (desktop at first and then Laptop) with witch I do business everyday.
And I have my old PC (previous desktop/laptop from before I bought the actual one) just behind me so if I have a crash, I have the same copy of my PC on my second desk ready to work while I repair what is going on with my main PC.
Clients don't care that I can have IT problems, they want results.

Both systems use the same OS.
When it was Win7Pro, it was on both and today, it is Win10_1909 on both.
I was using Tb External Drives (WD My Book) to backup my files so surely, I bought Beyond Compare to do cleanups.
But I also use AllWay Sync and monitor the syncs with BC4 once in a while.
So, files are always "live" on any of my hard drives.
In 2014, I bought a NAS (WD My Cloud 4Tb).
Same thing.
BC4 for cleanups and AllWay Sync to manage files and folders.
If I transfer, copy or move files from one area of a hard drive to another or to another hard drive, many times (too many times), like this morning, both sides have exactly the same files but timestamps are 1 hour delayed and for me, it doesn't make sense.
I can understand that when transferring (copy or move) folders are created and keep "today's" timestamps but files have to remain with the original timestamps, witch change every time I do transfer and I see all my files RED on one side and grey on the other side.
I don't have time to waste on worrying about that so I copy or move over to make sure I don't get that timestamps problem but in the end, I don't save as much time as I would expect with BC4.

I read what everybody wrote and answered but I think that we all have to ask ourselves why and where this does happen.
I don't think it has anything to do with Microsoft.
Mainly because, I rarely transfer data (files and folders) from Windows File Explorer unless it is for a small amount of files.

I would suggest that BC4 read the time stamp as it is and copy the file as it is and forget about Microsoft.
Microsoft read the time stamp on the file where it can get it, like BC4 so, the question is more, are we going to keep chasing our tail for another 10 years (because this problem on this post started in 2011) and get this fixed ?

Because it is really annoying and for me, I really don't care about Microsoft when it is BC4 I bought so find a solution.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Besides the scenario Zoe laid out, there are other instances in which this can occur. Which timezone is the NAS set to and how are you accessing it? For example, FTP servers can also have a set timezone (which then translates back based on the FTP Profile settings). Also, you mention a couple different methods of syncing the files (BC4, AllWaySync, anything else?), which did you use this morning to perform the transfer, and (assuming BC4) what what was the base folder syntax?

On older machines, this scenario was common and out of our control, so the setting was created to allow the user to optionally ignore a 1-hour difference. As Zoe mentioned, there are newer tools available (on Windows) to help mitigate this further, but implementing them is not a small project.