When I copy and paste a directory in my macbook pro to my timecapsule it keeps overwriting all files and deletes files that are not being overwritten. When it asks me whether i want to overwrite files it does not copy anything when i answer no. How do I copy just newer files and not delete files that are already on my timecapsule but are not on my mac. A PC does not have this problem
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How not to overwrite everything when copying files
- Thread starter viperacr
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This is just how Mac OS X copies directories. You need to actually open the folder you are copying from, select all contents then drag them over clicking yes to overwrite. This way only files of the same names will be copied over. You will need to repeat these steps for sub-folders.
This is just the way Mac's copy folders. They assume full directory replacement. I do agree they should add options for file vs folder replacement.
Though I also dislike how Windows does not just replace the folder so sometimes as I have to delete it first. Which is really aggravating to remember when replacing my huge music, picture or video directory backups after cleaning out duplicates or organizing.
This is just the way Mac's copy folders. They assume full directory replacement. I do agree they should add options for file vs folder replacement.
Though I also dislike how Windows does not just replace the folder so sometimes as I have to delete it first. Which is really aggravating to remember when replacing my huge music, picture or video directory backups after cleaning out duplicates or organizing.
You have to be kidding me. There has to be a better way of copying files and directories without full directory replacement . Its ridiculous
That's indeed the way Mac OS X handles the "replace" action.
It's not Apple's fault that Microsoft does it different. Your reaction is the same a Mac user would have when wanting to replace things on a windows machine.
It's your habit that's the issue, not the OS.
It's not Apple's fault that Microsoft does it different. Your reaction is the same a Mac user would have when wanting to replace things on a windows machine.
It's your habit that's the issue, not the OS.
But it is Apple's fault that an uninformed user can experience major data loss, where as an uninformed Windows user will just have clutter.
I agree with the OP, and it sucks that unless you want to go into terminal, that there's no way to do it. I'm pretty sure this is covered by FTFF...
Maybe I'm missing something but the OP is copying a folder and its contents but he wants some of the the contents of the target to remain? That doesn't sound logical to me, he's copying a folder so that is replacing the target. Its not a file centric operation in that its copying only the files to the a directory (of the same name) but rather that folder so the folder will be a mirror image of the source.
If the OP only wanted to copy files, he could have selected all of the files in the source folder, and copied them over to the target folder, there by leaving other files in the target folder intact
That makes perfect sense to me, again, I could be missing something.
Merging folders was something I did a bit of research on a little while ago. Maybe try something like this?
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/Folder-Merge.shtml
PS. Found my original post on Anandtech... check here for some suggestions:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=81&threadid=2330552
I use the 'ditto' command in terminal to make backups of my current design work to a backup drive -- It copies and replaces files with the same name but different last edited date, and copies in new files, without removing any of the existing files or hierarchy.