Manual sync with "copy to right/left" issue

[fkbecker]

Hi there,

I use BeyondCompare 4 (Current Beta) and I am always syncing my backups with "Copy to right" or "Copy to left". But the timestamp of the copied file is not (as in former versions) kept - it is set to the current date-time! IS there an option which I haven't found or is this really a bug?

BeyondCompare becomes nearly unusable with this behavior for me :-(

Cheers,
Frank

[Aaron]

Hello,

We normally try to preserve the Last Modified timestamp if the destination device supports it. What type of device are you copying to or from?

If you Refresh, or double check in Finder, is the timestamp actually set to the current time, or is it not displaying correctly in BC4 after the copy?

[fkbecker]

Hi there,

I am copying from HFS+ to HFS+ and the timestamp ist set to the current date/time. When I use "sync" everything works as it should. But what I do is:

1. Compare folder
2. Filter out same files
3. Copy to other side

And than the timestamp is set to the date/time when copied, not the original date/time. So the next "refresh" shows the just created backup copies as "newer files".

Cheers, Frank

[Aaron]

Hello,

I've tested these steps, but see the time preserved. Which version of OSX are you currently running? Are you running the latest build?

"Sync Update" should be using the same basic copy method as the "Copy" command. Are you using the Sync Update from the Folder Compare or Sync session; if from Compare is it on the selection or everything?

[fkbecker]

Hi,

I am using OS X Mavericks and the latest version of BeyondCompare. On my MacBook I had the same issues, but I used TrashMe to fully remove BeyondCompare and reinstalled - than it worked. I will do on my Mac Pro so, too.

Cheers, Frank

[Aaron]

I am not familiar with TrashMe, but our settings files are located in Users/username/Library/Application Support/Beyond Compare/. If you were to Move/Delete these, and the app in Applications\, that should clear out BC4's settings.

[Aaron]

Before you do, you could use the Tools menu -> Export to create an export of your settings. If you find a clear fixes it, then you re-import and it has the issue again, could we get an email of those settings to [email protected] ?

[Voxen]

There is an annoying behaviour when synchronizing to a FTP server.

If the quick test finds a difference between local and remote file, say the local file date is more recent, it shows a copy to right arrow which is fine. Then I double click the line to see the differences, then BC4 says that there is no difference and the = symbol is displayed which is fine too.

The problem is that if at this point I want to copy the file from right to left, the popup menu doesn't show these options anymore (left to right or right to left). So I can't synchronize my file and I have to refresh everything in order to do it.

You should leave those sync options always enabled even if the file contents are identical.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The Sync Update option is performing a normal copy, but only on files that should be synced (for Update: Newer and Orphan status). The regular Copy arrow is still available if there are only Unimportant differences (a squiggly = sign in the center column). Is the icon in the center a "0110="? This would indicate the files are actually binary matches (exactly the same). If they are exact matches, would you still need to copy the file? Or would you just need to update the timestamp (Touch command) in the Folder Compare?

[Voxen]

Yes, its to sync their timestamp so they don't show in the next sync session.

[Aaron]

Thanks. We'll look into this. In the meantime, the workaround would be to perform a Full Refresh (which will throw away the content compare stats), which should then allow you to re-run the sync on any remaining different files.

[fkbecker]

I am afraid that removing the settings haven't helped me.
Sync right/left and copy left/right do always set the timestamp to the current date/time and not the original date/time. That was different upto the version from 27. Dec. 2013 - and in all older versions, too.

Kind regards,
Frank

[Chris]

Hi Frank,

Are you copying between internal disks, or from an internal to an external drive?
If you are copying to an external drive, what kind of drive is it (flash drive or hard drive, usb 2, usb 3, firewire)?

[Zoë]

Frank,

The December 20th release added support for copying extended attributes and that could have been what broke it. Testing here, the timestamps are set correctly, but the current release does do that part of it after copying the timestamp, so depending on the environment it's possible the file system is treating that as another change. I've switched the order of operations for the next release; if you want to try a nightly build you can email [email protected] about it.

Alternatively, there's information on dealing with them from the command line here: http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbull...t=12726&page=2 I would guess that if you copy files that don't have extended attributes that they'll get the correct timestamp.

[kbmcguire]

Hi there,

I use BeyondCompare 4 (Current Beta) and I am always syncing my backups with "Copy to right" or "Copy to left". But the timestamp of the copied file is not (as in former versions) kept - it is set to the current date-time! IS there an option which I haven't found or is this really a bug?

BeyondCompare becomes nearly unusable with this behavior for me :-(

Cheers,
Frank

I have experienced the same problem as the OP. When using the Mac version (build 17451) to sync folders, some of the files and folders did not retain their timestamps correctly. When syncing those same folders using BC3 in Parallels/Windows the timestamps were retained properly. The problem is intermittent however. I noticed it yesterday but now I can't seem to reproduce it at the moment.