Not Showing Diffs If Time Stamps Are Identical

[stricklandd5]

**Please see my notes at the bottom of this post.**

I am currently comparing "Folders", and have added no custom filters.

I happen to have 2 files that are colored dark grey (as are their parent folders) as if there are no differences between the 2 files. However, when you open the files (using Beyond Compare) I see that the files do indeed have many differences...and once I close out the 'file' view (without making any changes) both the files and their parent folders, in ‘folder’ view, are also now red in color, showing that there are indeed differences between the 2 files.

Why didn't Beyond Compare pick this up on its initial scan of the directories under this folder?
Maybe it first looks to see if the time stamps on the files are the same, as they are in my case, and then just assumes that the files are identical? If this is the case, can you instruct me on how to change it in the settings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.


**Update: Issue Resolved**

-I clicked on the "Comparison Control" icon on the toolbar.
-I then checked the option "Binary Comparison" under the "Compare Contents" section (the option "Size Alone" was checked before that, which is why it didn't report any differences before)
-Lastly, I clicked the OK button.

After following those steps Beyond Compare picked up the differences on its initial scan of the directory.

One thing that would be nice to have is some type of progress bar so we can get a general idea of how much more it has to scan.

[Aaron]

Re: Not Showing Diffs If Time Stamps Are Identical

There is not a progress bar, but there is a Cancel button in the upper right corner for Background scans. It is red if there is a scan on-going, and gray if there is not.

If you launch a scan manually (right click, and select Compare Contents) then you do get a progress bar.

Scanning all the folders in the background is actually controlled by Comparison Control -> "Automatically scan subfolders in background" option. This will run the comparisons without needing to actively visit each folder. This is an option in case you find the comparison is very slow, and you are navigating around an area where you only need to compare what you are directly looking at. This, when combined with "Compare Contents->something other than Size alone" will read inside the file and override the timestamp findings.*
Rules-based will open the file with the File Viewer (using whatever rules you have set. Whitespace Unimportant, etc). Binary will check to see if the files are completely identical.

*Unless you go to the advanced tab and select "Seperate Timestamp/Content comparison"

Here is a handy guide we have online that will probably help:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/tour/

Let us know if you have any other questions.