How could one sort (in a column) the folders by their state / status?

[Donk]

How could one sort (in a column) the folders by their state / status (different content, same content, containing orphans, etc.)? So e.g. first / on top show all folders (on the left side) which contain orphans, beneath with same content, etc.

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4 does not support this style of sorting folders. Each of the Columns can be sorted by that criteria, and folders will be sorted first at the top. Folders are colored based on the criteria of the items within. You have several posts dealing with attempting to ignore files and compare folders. Could you provide more detail on your data set? BC4 does not compare folders; their status/color determined by their items and our filters work on the files (which then keep the folder structure as a container to help sort data).

The goal is to set up Display Filters, Name Filters, and Other Filters so that only the items you want to compare are easily visible and reviewable. Once configured, you can quickly find the data you are looking for and interact with it.

[Donk]

Hello Aaron.

Could you provide more detail on your data set?

Yes, of course, it is what I said in the other thread:

I am trying to organize / manage thousands of music albums, remove equals, etc. I am trying to accomplish:

• Duplicates of totally identical (by file content and amount of files) music albums (a folder contains one album) shall be removed
• Duplicates of totally identical (by file content and amount of files) music albums (a folder contains one album) containing at least one file more (e.g. 5 more files, 20 more files) shall be kept and the other duplicate folders having less files shall be removed
• When a file or more is unequal by content the folder pairs shall be prompted

BC4 does not compare folders

I understand, may be the names "Folder Compare", Folder Sync" are irritating me a little. So only files are compared, never the folders.

Can one move the columns, exchange e.g. "Size" with "Ext"?

Many thanks.

[Aaron]

For this type of workflow, I would recommend a couple of passes: deal with a specific criteria first, leaving a smaller data set to perform the next sweep on. BC4 is not designed as a Duplicate File Finder software, but the Folder Compare might be able to help find and resolve these different bullet points. There are specific software suites available that scan for duplicates within any folder; BC4's Folder Compare offers more control for aligning two targets, configuring what is important for the comparison (specific differences can be ignored), and reporting or reconciling the differences.

For example, the third data point (if a file is different), we can quickly show those folders with:
View menu -> Only Compare Files, Show Differences (optionally No Orphans), with the Session Settings set to a Binary content scan.

What determines if an album is a Duplicate? If the folder names have changed but file names are the same, this would be difficult to scan for; it would require manual review, since BC4 detects file name changes as a difference and would mark files or folders as Orphan. You could use Ignore Folder Structure to find moved files, but this assumes the file names are the same and that there are no duplicate file names on the left or right (which otherwise have to be dealt with manually).

You may want to find a specific Duplicate File Finder software to first remove identical, binary duplicates, and then perform a pass to find differences with Beyond Compare on the smaller, remaining data set.

[Donk]

1) Yes, that is plausible, I understand.

There are specific software suites available that scan for duplicates within any folder

Yes, it appears as if I had tried them all, but couldn't find one which does it properly.

For example, the third data point (if a file is different), we can quickly show those folders with:
View menu -> Only Compare Files, Show Differences (optionally No Orphans), with the Session Settings set to a Binary content scan.

It seems somehow I wasn't able to use that option correctly / usefully. What is the difference between the above options and "Compare file and folder structure"?

What determines if an album is a Duplicate? If the folder names have changed but file names are the same, this would be difficult to scan for

Yes, I assume, for this action a such a duplicate finder program would be the only way to use. So determining a duplicate here I would say the files names and folder names must be the same and the files have to have identical content and the amount of files is the same in a duplicate folder, no orphans.

You may want to find a specific Duplicate File Finder software to first remove identical, binary duplicates,

Yes, I had tried to find one without success. You can easily find and remove duplicates, but you cannot (as far as I have tested it) review the context (in an easy way), you have to do much work manually, many duplicate finder show the single duplicate files, but not the folder with the other files being together with the duplicate so you do not know which duplicate to remove. And you would have to review each single folder in a circumstantially way. BC is the program which does it the best.

[Aaron]

Only Compare Files will remove any "empty" folders that do not contain a relevant file from view. Compare Files and Folder Structure will leave Orphan folders in view, even if they are empty. Empty does not mean literally empty (although, they could be); it means there are no items that conform to the currently set filters.

BC4 could help narrow the folder structure, but it will also require quite a bit of manual work and review to achieve the type of scan you are looking for.

[Donk]

OK, I understand, thank you very much!