No good way to handle empty folders

[InquiringMinds]

Suppose I have two identical folder trees that contain one or more empty folders.

If I delete an empty folder from the tree on one side, there is no way to get BC to delete it from the tree on the other side.

If I run a full compare, the empty folders that were not deleted are not displayed. But if I do a sync, they get recreated.

I can control whether they are recreated using the "Create empty folders" option, but I can't find a way to propagate the deletion to the other tree.

Am I missing something?

[Aaron]

Hello,

For BC2: you can toggle on Always Show Folders in the Directory Viewer, then apply -*.* as your file name filter. This would show the directory structure. You can Expand All then Collapse All to calculate the size for any folders that do not automatically scan. Any size 0 folders would be empty folders, which you can deal with before a sync.

Alternatively, you could set Always Show Folders to off, Expand All/Collapse All (which removes all empty folders), then select all existing items and right-click: Exclude. This excludes all non-empty folders and items. Then toggle on Always Show Folders to show the '0' size folders.

We wouldn't propagate deleted folders unless you were syncing from the side the exist on to the side they don't exist on. At that point, they'd be Orphan on the Source, and if Create Empty Folders is enabled, we would copy orphan items from the source to the destination.

For BC3:
From the Folder Compare session, you can change the View menu to Compare Files and Folder Structure, then set the file name filter to -*.* to hide all of the files. This would leave you with a list of the folder structure (with Size 0 as the empty folders). We also have a Show None display filter that could be enabled in the Customize Commands dialog.

[whfreund]

ELIMINATING EMPTY FOLDERS BEFORE A SYNC OPERATION
Although I have been using BC for 10+ years a reading of some of these posts leads me to the conclusion that I am a real novice at BC and am hardly scratching the surface in terms of its capabilities. For example, whenever I create a new session I invariably do so via the "Folder Compare" button and never the "Folder Sync" button.
I recently purchased a 32Gb SanDisk USB 3.0 "micro" flash drive which I intend to use as a "back-up" for a certain segment of folders/files on my laptop. Using the "Folder Compare" button I created a session for this purpose and when I clicked on the "Update Right" button the "preview" information includes the statement "Create 79 empty folders on right".
I was not even aware that my selection of "Include folders:" included that many empty folders. I am loathe to create that many blank folders on my "new" backup flash drive and more importantly, would like to eliminate them from my laptop hard drive before I run the initial session which will copy all the specified folders/files from my laptop to the "new" flash drive.
How do I go about identifying these "empty folders" so that I may eliminate them?

[Aaron]

Hello,

If you use the Folder Sync session type, then go to the Session menu -> Session Settings, Handling tab, you can disable the option to Create Empty Folders.

This would remove any empty folders from the sync. An empty folder is either actually empty (size 0, no files), or because all current filters have removed the items from the folder leaving it 'empty'. You can temporarily enable Suppress Filters to see if there are any filtered out items.

Showing only empty folders is a bit trickier. The easier method, from the Folder Compare session's preview dialog, you can expand the option "Create 79 empty folders" and it will show the list of items.
To show them in the main interface, you would need to use the View menu -> Show Only Files, Edit menu -> Expand All. This removes all empty folders. Then Select All, and right-click Exclude (creating a filter to exclude all non-empty folders). Then the View menu -> Always Show Folders to bring back the empty folders.

[Johnny Cakes]

If you use the Folder Sync session type, then go to the Session menu -> Session Settings, Handling tab, you can disable the option to Create Empty Folders.

My situation is a bit different from the OP, but I found this thread while doing a search to try to help myself.

I would like to NOT create empty folders during a session.

However, "Create Empty Folders" does not appear as an option on > Session Settings > Handling

Under Session Settings > Handling, I have a "Folder Handling" section, but my options are "Automatically scan subfolders in background and Expand subfolders when loading sesion.

[Aaron]

Hello,

No problem, though I assume you are likely using BC4 at this point?

That option is only available in the Folder Sync session type, not the Folder Compare. Each view/session controls which context sensitive options are present in the Session Setting dialog.

To remove empty folders in the Folder Compare, you can use the View menu -> Only Compare Files. This will remove any 'empty' folders (either actually empty or all items inside are excluded by filters) from view once they are expanded or acted upon. If you attempt a Copy or Sync command on a selection, those empty folders will then be removed from view and that command.

Is this the behavior you are looking for?

[Johnny Cakes]

1. A response in five minutes -- amazing!
2. Completely solved issue -- apprecaited!