Grig Software

I have a folder of small binary files I want to sync from my desktop to my laptop (via a mapped drive). Three of the files on the desktop were changed and had different sizes, but all the files on the laptop were newer, so I chose "size only".

The problem is this: If I choose "Update target" no differences are found. If I choose "synchronize" then the three changed files are found, but the direction of copy is from laptop to desktop, the reverse of what I want.

I can click "reverse" and sync from laptop to desktop, and then the direction of copy is from the desktop to the laptop, which is correct but seems counter-intuitive to say the least...

MKairys wrote: Three of the files on the desktop were changed and had different sizes, but all the files on the laptop were newer, so I chose "size only".

If I understand correctly, you have changed the files on your desktop, but you want to keep the older files. I think any synchronizer would be helpless in such situations. How should the software know, what you want? Or, differently phrased, how could an appropriate rule look like?

Anonymous wrote:How should the software know, what you want?

I think it's quite straightforward. The three files on the desktop that I modified differ in size from their counterparts on the laptop. The file times are irrelevant so I say "Size only". I want to copy to the laptop so I make it the target and say Update Target. I expect the software to say "these three files differ in size, so I will copy them to the target."

Now, Synchronize had to make a decision about which way to go when I told it to ignore file times, and it did -- it chose to not to ignore them. I think this was a reasonable thing to do, if not quite as useful as the operation I had intended At least it showed me the correct files, which Update Target did not.

Well, this makes some sense. Currently comparison rules only affects file listing, copy direction is still using date always. I will think about your approach.
In your case you can use Duplicate mode to copy older files to destination. I will make next update today, it will include full help. You will find Actions section useful, I think.

Oh, I see! You have already made a manual disposition. What I meant is that the software can hardly decide by itself (automatically) which way you want to synchronise.

That's true, but this is what actions are for. With time I will add an abiliy to create custom actions, which would definitely help in this case.

grigsoft wrote:Well, this makes some sense. Currently comparison rules only affects file listing, copy direction is still using date always.

The thing I found disturbing is that Update Target claimed the two directories were identical, which I knew was not true...

well, historically UpdateTarget ignore files which are newer on target. Maybe I will have to think this concept over again. But I will left it for version 3.5