How to maintain Folder date/time stamp?

[Zoë]

After running the mirror I click on the button to show only differences and everything shows different. I'm in the process of preping a new Android phone.

It sounds like you're seeing an issue with timestamps for files in addition to folders. The original posts in this thread were requesting a fix for BC not copying timestamps for folders specifically.

Unfortunately the issue you're seeing is a common limitation of Android, specifically with its "media transport protocol" support, which varies from phone to phone. There's a long thread discussing it here:

Timezone problem BC between Windows and Android - Scooter Forums (scootersoftware.com)

The short answer is that when you plug your phone into your computer Android acts as if it's a MP3 player or camera rather than a USB flash drive, so we have to use a different way of copy the files and set last modified times. BC does try to set the timestamps, but the phones won't always respect that, or will pretend that it does but then show incorrect timestamps after unplugging it and plugging it back in or after a reboot. There's a couple of different workarounds you can try, though the specifics of how to do so will be dependent on your specific phone:

1) See if you can reconfigure your phone so when you plug it in it acts like a flash drive with a drive letter rather than an MTP/PTP device.
2) If you're copying to an SD card, take it out of your phone and connect it to your computer directly.
3) Install software on your phone to make it act as either a Windows file server (Samba) or an FTP/SFTP server, and connect to it over the network that way.
4) Create a zip file of the files on your computer, transfer that to the phone, then unzip it through the phone's interface.

[jgt1942]

This has been an issue for me for a LONG time. Is there any hope that it will get resolved? I'm attempting to mirror a folder that contains folders that contain files. After running the mirror I click on the button to show only differences and everything shows different. I'm in the process of preping a new Android phone. For reasons I don't understand when I ran the Samsung transfer to move all the stuff from my old Note8 to the new S22 Ultra the audio files were not transferred. I used BC$ to copy the folders from the old phone to my windows PC (as a backup) and to the new phone. The dates are all screwed up, and the file sizes look to be the same but the BC4 comparison shows that everything is different. How in the heck do I know if the transfer (copy) was successful?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Sorry, this is still an item on our wishlist but not one we've been able to tackle yet. Our current behavior matches a regular Copy command, and preserving additional date data is something we'd like to add as an option.

Last Modified for Files, by default, does attempt to be preserved without any extra option. However, the destination device might set it to the time of the transfer. The Touch command can manually set the Last Modified timestamp for a selection (Files or Folders), which can sometimes work even if it wasn't preserved during a copy. However, for folders, if you copy any additional items into the folder, this will 'modify' it and update the timestamp.

[kalam]

I beg you to add the option to preserves ALL original folder/file/symbolic_links dates, and not just for the creation date (Session Settings - Handling).
When creating a copy of folders, it is very important that all dates (records, creations, access, changes) remain original. These are the dates I (and hopefully many) use to sort folders.

[Aaron]

Sync Mirror, Update, or a manual copy will function similarly, controlling what items are transferred but not how folder timestamps are handled. If a folder is part of the copy and an item inside of it is included, then the folder timestamp updates when that file comes over.

And, yes, it is a good workaround to set filters to exclude all files and Always Show Folders, so you can select only the folders, and manually override the Last Modified Timestamps of the folders.

[lpruettusa]

20180913 - My FIX for target folders not getting date/time of source folders.

When I do a "update" or "mirror" if there are changes, the target folder date stamp get updated to current date & time. I would think in the "mirror" mode, it will keep the same date and time stamp for the folders (not just the files), but that's not the case. The date/time stamp is getting updated. Is there a way to keep the same date/time stamp for the folder as the source in the mirror mode?

Today, I tried to find a workaround to the SYNCHRONIZE -> MIRROR steps not setting the target folder date/time to the source date/time. Folder dates are very important to me because I have over 20,000 folders on my Project Data drive with versions of folders by the same name. So, the date the folder was created is critical. It takes more than 24hrs on an i7 64GB to Touch all those folders.

MY FIX:
1 - In the FOLDER COMPARE main window, select folders on the SOURCE SIDE to duplicate to the TARGET side (RIGHT SIDE for me and this example).
2 - Do SYNCHRONIZE -> MIRROR on the folder (can be all top level folders or just the ones you need).
3 - Click the FILTERS button tool to open the SESSION SETTINGS window to the NAME FILTERS tab.
4 - Type in "*.*" (without the quotes) under EXCLUDE FILES. This will ignore all regular files and just show folders, including sub-folders. Add to PRESETS to name and save this filter for future use. If you don't want save, you can just type "-*.*" (without the quotes) in the Filters entry field on the main FOLDER COMPARE main window instead of using the FILTERS button
5 - Select all the top-level folders on the TARGET side (RIGHT side) of the FOLDER COMPARE main window.
6 - Right-click on any of the selected folders and choose TOUCH to open the TOUCH window.
7 - Check-on INCLUDING FOLDER CONTENTS so that sub-folders get TOUCHed.
8 - Choose the radio button for COPY TIMESTAMPS FROM OTHER SIDE
9 - Click the Start Button. My 20,000+ folders all got the date/time values updated in less than a minute or two.
I suggest doing a test on a small folder, multiple sub-folder and multiple file example to make sure it works for you.

So, to summarize, do Mirror on folders and files, set filter to show just folders, and then do touch on those visible folders.

**Note: I have not thought about, or tested, how this fix will work for SYNCHRONIZE -> UPDATE since I haven't used that command since doing the fix. The only question for UPDATE is whether, or not, UPDATE transfers the date/time for files (my memory tells me it does). If it does transfer file date/time, then this fix will work fine following SYNCHRONIZE -> UPDATE, too.**

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4 supports preserving file timestamps, but folder timestamps are updated during the copy or sync. In fact, the folder timestamp is preserved as it is created, but once any items are copied in, the host OS updates the timestamp. This follows OS convention, similar to a Copy using Explorer. Often, folder timestamps will be updated as you interact with your files by the OS. It's on our wishlist to enhance and preserve the timestamp.

[mettur]

When I do a "update" or "mirror" if there are changes, the target folder date stamp get updated to current date & time. I would think in the "mirror" mode, it will keep the same date and time stamp for the folders (not just the files), but that's not the case. The date/time stamp is getting updated. Is there a way to keep the same date/time stamp for the folder as the source in the mirror mode?