Compare Folders Select Newest - unexpected results

[MikeC]

I do a "Compare Folders, Select newest" and:

(1) exactly the same file, with the same size and date, shows up selected in both panes (neither should be?),

(2) exactly the same file, with the same size and date, is selected in one pane and not the other (neither should be?),

(3) I would have expected, based on the documentation, only files in common with both left and right pane to be a candidate for selection, but left-pane and right-pane only files are also selected.

See attached screen image.

The on-line doco:

Compare Folders, Select Newest

Will find files/folder that exist in both panels and select only the newest of them.

[Mathias (Author)]

It will selected the newest of the duplicated files/folders

if readme.txt is located in both left/right

The one of them that is the newest based on file date is then selected.

If you want to selected files that exists in both left and right then select "Compare Folders, Select Duplicates"

[MikeC]

It appears that that is not what's happening.  Look at the attached image.  The light-blue files in the right pane are "selected" along with the dark-blue ones in the left pane.

(1) Why is ccsetup312.exe is selected in both panes when the dates are the same?
(2) Why is cecho_bin.zip selected in the right-pane only when the dates are the same?
(3) Why is CodeMaid_v0.3.7.msi selected in the left-pane when it does not exist in the right-pane?
(4) From the doco for Select Newest, none of the selected files shown in the left-pane or right-pane should be selected?

Or am I grossly misunderstanding this?

I even repeated the Select Newest command, thinking that I must have hit something else instead.  But, no, what is shown in the image is what I got for Select Newest.

[Mathias (Author)]

Strange.  I'm not able to make it fail. All the tests I do work.


You sure not the Grey files that are the selected one in the right panel ? Then it would fit.
Or "Compare Folders, Select Newest/Missing" would also fit.


When it compares date/time it checks down to the seconds.  So maybe that are different. ?
Are one of the panels on a disk that is FAT and the other NTFS ?  FAT have less time resolution on files. and same file on FAT vs NTFS can be different.

[MikeC]

Well....

The file set on the right pane is from a FAT32 Sandisk USB drive, while the file set on the left pane is from Windows 7 NTFS.

Would that explain it?

If so, then if I copy a file from NTFS to FAT32 USB drive, then do a Select Newest and it flags the FAT32 file as being newer, then I can't use MC for this purpose?  If so, is there a way do dumb-down the compare function such that time is compared based on the most coarse of the NTFS or FAT32 systems?  In other words, when comparing file systems with different resolutions on time, dumb-down the higher resolution time to to lower resolution precision.

[Mathias (Author)]

It might in part. But it does not explain the extra selected files that are unique in one of the panel. ( unless you happen to select "newest and missing" options)

I do not have a FAT32 disk here at the moment so I can not test and confirm if that is the problem. But I will check it out.

I will see if there can be a way to modify the resolution of the time, if that turns out to be the issue.

[Mathias (Author)]

Latest Beta RC (874) should work better.

[MikeC]

I installed build 876.

It does not appear to work any better.  Again, I am comparing Windows 7 NTFS folder with a USB Sandisk Cruzer FAT32 folder.

I selected "Edit --> Compare Folders, Select Missing".

See the 1st attached image. 
The file "IPod Shuffle 2nd Generation..." is selected in left pane (NTFS) correctly because it is not in the right pane (FAT32).
The file "Just reset it.pdf" selected in the left pane also exists in the right pane.  It should not be selected?

This is just one example of many that are selected in the left pane but also exist in the right pane.  The 2nd attached image contains another example.

(see subsequent reply for a continuation of this since size of three gif files exceeded 192KB limit)

[MikeC]

(continuation of prior reply)

Then I selected "Edit --> Compare Folders, Select Newest".

The the attached image shows part of the results.  Again, on both left and right panes, files are selected that have the same date and time. (for this image, the left pane shows two selected files and the right shows three).

[Mathias (Author)]

That is very strange.

All tests I do here, it works.  Don't really know why it does not work for you. It should.

NTFS vs FAT only matters when comparing using time. There might be some daylight saving or timezone stuff effecting the FAT32 time.
because some files look to have an diff of exact 1h.. (but not sure since seconds is not shown)