Lost my "modified" dates!

[ssalb1]

Ack! I made a mistake and wonder if there is a solution.

I uploaded my files to my ftp server using BC. I didn't realize that it reset my "Modified" dates to the time of upload. After editing data on the FTP server for some time, I mirrored the data to my local drive. That's when I realized that I overwrote my original files with the files from my FTP server that lost their Modified dates. We use that information regularly, so this is a big loss. Is there any remedy for that?

Also, any way for Mirror to ACTUALLY Mirror --- i.e., move the data without modifying any of it, including the Modified date?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Beyond Compare attempts to preserve the Last Modified Date when copying. Sometimes the FTP server does not allow, or is not configured to allow, setting the Last Modified Date, so it will update it to the time the copy took place.

If you perform your FTP copy with another client, such as Filezilla, do you see similar behavior?

Beyond Compare can manually Touch files and set their date and timestamp with the Touch command. Does this command work on your current FTP Server? It is available under the right click menu.

Side Note: The Last Modified Timestamp is a file property, but is not technically the "data" of the file. Files can have different timestamps, but still return Binary or CRC equal.

[ssalb1]

Aaron,

You said that Last Modified is a file property but not technically the data of the file. Do you know whether there is a way of restoring the Last Modified date to the ACTUAL last modified date?

[Aaron]

Do you have a backup of your files anywhere? If you copied to an FTP (updated timestamp), then copied back down replacing the original timestamp, then unfortunately the timestamp is now updated. I'm not familiar with any software that can then restore the previous Last Modified date.

In the future, you can use Beyond Compare to save a Snapshot. A snapshot can save a timestamp, file size, folder structure, etc as a virtual directory with no content.

[ssalb1]

If you copied to an FTP (updated timestamp), then copied back down replacing the original timestamp, then unfortunately the timestamp is now updated.

I did use an FTP login to upload my files. Does this mean that there is another way to upload my files that will NOT change the timestamp?

The Snapshot won't work --- I need the actual data to be on the remote drive. But the data needs to keep its original Modified date.

Is there any way to achieve that with Beyond Compare?

[Zoë]

Your FTP server does not support setting the timestamps when we upload files. It's not a limitation of Beyond Compare. If you want your files to keep their timestamps when you upload them you'll need to switch the FTP server software you're using or look for a setting in your existing software to enable setting timestamps.

[ssalb1]

We currently have PureFTPD operating on our server. We also have ProFTPD. Do you know if either of those have the option to enable setting timestamps? If not, do you know what FTP software will?

[Chris]

You might just need to update to a newer version of Pure-FTPD. I tested on an Ubuntu 8.04 system running the default configuration of Pure-FTPD 1.0.21-11 and it allowed me to set timestamps on upload.

The above configuration did list the timestamps as off by a few hours until I changed the way BC3 handles directory listings. To fix the timestamp listing with the listed version of Pure-FTPD, select "Tools > FTP Profiles". Select the profile for your server. Go to the "Listings" tab. Uncheck "Use MLSD command" and check "Force long format".