By default, tracking of moved files is disabled. (Moved files include renamed files as well.) You can enable the corresponding option in the Advanced tab of the sync settings.
When you move a file and this option is disabled, SyncTime will see the old file as removed and the new one as added, so if the file contents did not change, the entire file will be copied again. (If the option “Remove files not on source” is disabled, the file with the old name is preserved along the file with the new name.) This is a minor inconvenience if you rarely move files, since tracking moved files requires the creation of snapshots that occupy additional space (see below).
When enabling this option, the following sync will create a snapshot of the source which stores each file’s path and identifier. Starting from the sync after that, a moved file can be matched to its previous location by finding the corresponding identifier in the snapshot.
Tracking moved files adds a new phase to the sync operation:
- Scan all bases.
- Determine moved files, show confirmation dialog and apply changes.
- Determine removed, overwritten and added files, show confirmation dialog and apply changes.
If a moved file is removed from the confirmation panel in (2), it will appear again in the confirmation panel in (3) as an added file and, if “Remove files not on source” is enabled, the old file will appear as a removed file.
Conflicts
A conflict can occur in a sync with multiple sources or a two-way sync when the same file is renamed differently on different source bases, or if different files on different source bases are renamed to the same name. Conflicts are logged as a sync error.
These conflicts don’t necessarily need to be taken care of. Ignoring them will simply cause the related files to appear in the confirmation dialog for removed, overwritten and added files (see above), and accepting those changes will solve the conflicts.
Snapshots
Snapshots are saved as files with the .tsv extension in
~/Library/Group Containers/8L4NN3ZTVN.org.desairem.SyncTime/Library/Application Support/snapshotswhere ~ is your user directory.
Hint: you can show the snapshots in the Finder by opening the File menu or main window context menu and, while pressing the Option key, selecting Show Snapshot in Finder.