Preserve Modified date stamp when copying folders to other drives

[bcdewul]

Up front: I don't want to steal a thread of someone else.

There have been quite a number of requests for this feature.
Some earlier thread titles, see below.

It is a problem of most synchronize tools: they create new date stamps.

That is the way Explorer apparently works. Users have to update folder date afterwards using, for instance, Touch.
Note: instead of Windows Explorer I use Directory Opus. The modified date stamp is preserved when using Directory Opus. I am used to that. In fact I didn't know that Explorer works differently...

Anyway, Beyond Compare has Touch, i.e. it has a feature to correct this behavior afterwards: copy old date-time stamp over the new one. Should be done manually though.

Suggestion/question: why not add this as an option?
So Beyond Compare corrects the modified date stamp to read after source (old) automatically.

Thanks!





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Touch files after synchronizing them
Always Open BC With Modified File in Right Pane
Preserving the Mod Date when copying across drives
can I keep date when file copies to new location
Synchronize Notebook with Smartphone: file dates are not updated on the Smartphone?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks. This is a wishlist item, and I'll add your notes/example to our entry on the subject. Also note, as soon as you copy any item into a folder, it updates the timestamp, so it can commonly update externally from the original sync or using BC4.

As for the smartphone, it is failing with the Touch command? Some devices or protocols can reject setting the timestamp. BC4 does attempt to preserve during file transfers, but some destinations will update this to the time of the transfer instead. The BC4 Touch command can then sometimes override this, but not always if the destination side prevents it.

[whitten]

Hello,
Thanks. This is a wishlist item, and I'll add your notes/example to our entry on the subject. Also note, as soon as you copy any item into a folder, it updates the timestamp, so it can commonly update externally from the original sync or using BC4.

Is this still a wishlist item from eleven or so years ago?

Dave Whitten

[Chris]

Yes, preserving folder modified timestamps is still an open wish list item.

[bcdewul]

A long time ago, someone (not being a developer) wrote a very small script that updated the folder based on the newest (optionally oldest) file in that folder. It does that for many folders, recursively. I added this to a button within Opus. One has to run it separately.
Whilst I have no knowledge of scripts and/or developing at all, I think, Beyond Compare has skilled developers and probably it should not be too complicated for them to update folders after the newest file in those folders, once a new folder has been created.
Just an idea...

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4's Touch command can manually set the timestamp, but does not read from a file within the folder. BC4 does support the Open With commands (in the Options dialog), which could execute a custom command you have on a selection of folders to perform a similar set of steps. BC4's current behavior mirrors Explorer and general folder handling; once we work on implementing the above feature request it would also need to handle the edge cases.

[bcdewul]

Thanks.

Yesterday only someone told me that copying folderdates can be done using Robocopy.
I've never used Robocopy, so I am not familiar with this command line tool. It seems there is parameter like
/DCOPY:T = COPY Directory Timestamps

If the built in Robocopy can do it, then I am sure Beyond Compare should also be capable of doing it.

Anyway, I'll stop nagging about this.
It is up to you/Beyond Compare developers now.

[Aaron]

It's definitely on the wishlist; just that there are a few high priority items (like 64bit MacOS support) that are already scheduled and need to be tackled.

[bcdewul]

It's definitely on the wishlist; just that there are a few high priority items (like 64bit MacOS support) that are already scheduled and need to be tackled.

Two years later . . .
Curious to know, where is this on the wishlist? Hopefully still not at the bottom?
I understand some 64bit MacOS stuff needed to be sorted out with priority.
Is that done now? I.e. is there any chance this feature request be handled?

[Aaron]

Hello,

It is less what is at the "bottom" of the list, than factors that determine what 'bubbles' up, including which areas a developer is already working on, other high priority issues that bump their way to the top, or large projects which can take a lot of resources. You can review what we've been working on since 2018 in our changelog: http://www.scootersoftware.com/downl...zz=v4changelog

It is something still on our radar, but isn't implemented in the current release. The Mac 64bit build has been released, and we're currently polishing its stability.

[chrisjj]

Another vote for this.

[mettur]

WOW!!!! Still no answer after all these years???? I read somewhere BC4 fixes this issue and can maintain folder dates. So I upgraded to BC4 only to findout still no solution. Come on people.

Anyway thanks to response to my post about 4 years ago, I have a solution that will work for now. Yes its with Touch - I have to figure out how to include this in the batch routine, then I should be fine.

Here is a possible solution: How to maintain Folder date/time stamp? - Scooter Forums (scootersoftware.com)