Reorganizing with subfolder "trick"?

Hi,

First of all, thanks for syncthing, I use it for almost three years now to keep my files synced and it works like a charm. I almost never have to “do” anything, which is just how I like my “infrastructure” software. So many thanks to the team. :slight_smile:

Right now I want to do a bigger file re-organization and I wanted to get your opinion on how to save on bandwidth and downtime.

Right now I have two huge photo folders. Lets call them A and B and they are synched separately, but on the same machines. So they are Shared Folders in the Syncthing sense.

I want to move some Subfolders of Photos from Folder A and B to a yet non existing Folder C without causing too much re-downloading.

I read up on these issue here: Syncthing FAQ and Reorganizing folder results in files being transferred again - Support

So as I understand, if I just create Folder C, start syncing it and start move Subfolders with photos to C, I “trigger” the problem described in the FAQ and everything needs to be synced.

Could I instead do it differently: Create a Subfolder named C in each of the Folders A and B. Move Subfolders with photos separately from A to subfolder C (under A/C’) and from B to subfolder C (in B/C’’). So syncthing only moves “inside” its own folder and it is almost instant. After that is finished, I stop syncthing and locally combine A/C’ and B/C’’ on each computer into a Folder C.

Then I start syncing folder A, B (both without C) and new C again and I only have to wait for the hashes to be finished.

What do you think?

Will syncthing move files to subfolders instantly by renaming them? (A/test to A/C’/test)? Is this in general a good idea or just I recipe for disaster? :smiley:

If you want to save on transfers and can afford to waste some disk space temporarily, copy the files, let them sync, then delete. You’re guaranteed that the other side does a local copy instead of retransfer. Otherwise moves within a folder are the next best thing and should usually result in a move on the other side as well, yes. A third option, if the reorganization is systematic, is to do it manually in the same way on both sides. Let both sides rehash and resync with each other and they should be in sync again with no transfers. Maybe pause the connection while the hashing is going on so they both understand the local situation before talking to the other.

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So if I understand correctly, so long as there is the same hash in a different folder still present, syncthing just copies that file (part)? Because I am pretty sure I can spare the disk space.

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yes

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Alright, thanks for your help! :grin:

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