Copy from folder to folder - Skip, Skip all & Skip identical

Probably a silly question, but I have never been entirely sure about this. When copying from one folder to another, when prompted because a same name file is found, the options to Skip or Skip identical are clear cut. The one I have never been 100% certain about is Skip all. Skip all what? Skip all identical (the logical meaning) or Skip all (files - which is effectively Abort).
I realise Compare and Synchronise avoids this question but sometimes I don't want to use Synchronise.

The meaning of the different options are described in the manual here:

https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html#!Documents/The_Replace_Dialog.htm

Thanks Leo. I wasn't being lazy - I did try and find the answer in the manual. :pleading_face:

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I found feature requests for Skip All Identical in various places in the forum.

This request was frequently respondend by:

...or similar.

However, like some of the users in the other threads, I cannot confirm this. For me, only the current identical file is skipped, and with the next file, the prompt about what to do comes up again:


...was I about to write, and then double-checked again.

I just found that in fact, "Skip Identical" does a "Skip All Identical" on any current file queue – however, with one exception:

When copying or moving several files from a flat view to a folder where several of the source files are already present, "Skip Identical" skips only one of the source files, and the next file brings up the above dialog prompt again.

I believe this is a small bug that should still be fixed.

The two files in your screenshot are not "identical" (in terms of what "identical" means with "Skip Identical"). They have different sizes and times.

If you want to skip all files with the same names, Skip All does that.

Oh wow, you're right. I just improved my experiment by copying the identical contents of two identical folders to one new folder (using flat view of the copy source), clicked on "Skip Identical", and it copied exactly one of each of the duplicate files, skipping exactly every of the identical duplicates.

Awesome! Thank you.

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I think I now understand why the feature request for "Skip All Identical" keeps coming up, although "Skip Identical" does already a "Skip All Identical", however, only under certain circumstances.

When copying several files over existing files and selecting "Skip Identical", often I keep being asked for each single file what to do with it "because a file with the same name already exists at the destination".

I then have to click on "Skip Identical" for each file separately in order to skip the corresponding file. This is not even consistent with the current definition of "Skip Identical" because the two files are still not identical after that click, due to their different modification dates.

I was always of the opinion that "Skip Identical" would compare the content of the files and then skip all files with identical content.

I don't know whether this is the case or not, but "Skip Identical" doesn't work as expected if the files have identical content, name and size but different dates.

The latter often happens to me after I have downloaded or received a number of files a second time on a later date, for example, and am initially not sure whether the content of some of the files may have changed in the meantime.

Anyway, my suggestion would be that "Skip Identical" actually should perform a bitwise comparison of the file content and ignore the file date.

This way, what I consider to be the most common use case for "Skip Identical" would actually be covered.

Skip Identical wouldn't overwrite anything.

It skips all files that have the same name, date and size as the destination. Nothing more or less than that.

Comparing file content wouldn't make sense, as it'd usually be quicker to overwrite the destination file than to read it on top of reading the source file. (Unless the destination has a very slow write speed and fast read speed.)

Yeah, I meant to say "I then have to click on "Skip Identical" for each file separately in order to skip the corresponding file." I have edited this in the above.

Whoa, I always used to rely on a identical content definition of "Skip Identical"...

In my view, it would be better if this feature could be changed to actually compare the files contents. Then one could A) rely on the actual identity of the files and B) the problem of having to skip every single file of a group of files because only the date is not identical would go away as well.

The replace dialog is solely concerned with filename clashes. Trying to copy filename X from A to B and it already exists, what do you want to do.

The size/date are shown for you to decide which one you want to keep. You can use Skip Identical to automatically skip all files where the size/date are the same - you'll still be prompted for other clashes.

If you want to skip all filename clashes, that's what Skip All is for.