Sync folder names of tree with identical files: possible?

[cricktor]

I'm still in the process of product evaluation and had quite some good experience so far. (Though, far from trying all features or even understanding of all what's possible with BC.)

I did a (rather quick) forum search but couldn't find a topic covering the following scenario which I have:

I have two file trees, one on the local hard drive, the other on a network share. Initially both trees are identical, same folder names, same file names. File content is confirmed by two indipendent checks (one by SHA1 checksums; another by binary comparison with BC; no errors where detected, folder and file names of nested folders/files are identical in the beginning). Long story, sorry...

This is what I'd like to do/achieve and I'm not sure if BC can assist me herewith.

At the beginning I have this (the real file and folder names are of course different):
Left side (hard drive), e.g.
FolderA

Folder1

File1.mkv

File2.txt

Folder2

File3.mkv

File4.txt

...

...

FolderB

Folder3

File5.yyy
...

...

...

As in the beginning the file trees is totally identical, I have on the right side (network share) the very same folder names and files.

Now I do some fancy folder renaming as the only change on the network share side. BC is not particularly required for this folder name renaming.

The rights side (network share) then looks like this:
FolderA

NewNameForFolder1

File1.mkv

File2.txt

NewNameForFolder2

File3.mkv

File4.txt
...

...

FolderB

NewNameForFolder3

File5.yyy
...

...

...

Finally, my question for BC: is it somehow possible to sync only the folder renaming from the one to the other side?
This might be a special use case... Could BC detect that files are the same (for me it would be OK to select that files are identical when their names and file sizes are (the data volume is beyond a terrybyte, so full binary comparison would be quite lengthy, and I know already that the files are all identical) AND align the files AND allow to sync only the folder names from one side to the other (preserving folder time stamps, optionally)?

At present when I try a comparison or folder sync of both base folders which contain as in the example the folders FolderA, FolderB, ... (with a lot more subfolders) there is no alignment regarding the files. I guess to flatten the folder tree structure doesn't help me here, as the sync is about the folders, not the files.

Any hidden or not so obvious options already present in BC here? Or is my use case too special?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Most of your analysis is correct. The Folder Structure is important in 3 out of the 4 view modes, so a difference in name would present as orphan files. These orphans can be handled and fully copied, but not just renaming them. The 4th view mode ignores folder structure and removes folders from the comparison, but this can then align files that are in different subfolders, and is about syncing files regardless of the folder they are in, not for renaming the bucket (that was just removed from view).

You can manually align folders with different names if they are on the same subfolder level with the Align With command or Alignment Overrides. However, this also won't rename the target during a sync, but rather treat them as the same.

Aligning on different criteria and touching file or folder names of equal files is something on our long term wishlist, but not a feature BC4 supports.

[cricktor]

OK, my use case here is a bit unique, but I thought I could ask, because BC has so many options, it's too easy to oversee something. Thanks, anyway!

All file names are unique, but if BC can't lock/anchor on the unique and same files then it doesn't help me. But that's just a project that won't happen so often. It just happens to be on my agenda right now.

[Arbie]

Actually, your use case is probably not unique. The one thing that takes more time than any other for me in BC is refreshing a very large backup set. 90% of the changes will be to folder and filenames. BC4 has nothing to deal with that, so I must either (1) have BC recopy terabytes of data that haven't changed or (2) manually copy and paste new folder names from one drive replacing old folder names on another; then have BC copy the relatively few files that have actually changed (though there too it's almost always the filenames only).

[obetz]

OK, my use case here is a bit unique

IMNSHO, that's not an unique use case but requested many times before. My last posting about it https://www.scootersoftware.com/vbul...-trees-in-sync is just two weeks old, but the topic goes back for years.

If you deal a lot with renames, there are other sync tools,e.g. FreeFileSync (I tested it briefly, seems to work pretty well), GoodSync, Syncovery, BestSync, SyncBack.

I hoped to get this from Beyond Compare but sadly I have to select, evaluate, buy and maintain another software now.