# script to "restore" all staggered files
**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/script-to-restore-all-staggered-files/16535
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 20, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/script-to-restore-all-staggered-files/16535 "2021-03-20T00:09:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cregox](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/cregox)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/script-to-restore-all-staggered-files/16535/1 "2021-03-20T00:09:41Z")
i keep running into sync issues when i move folders around.
so, long ago, i decided to keep staggered in both nodes.
they were working good until yesterday. mostly i don’t need to worry about the dreadful `.stversions` folder and when i do i just go to the gui and restore all latest versions, usually.
don’t know why, but now the gui in both nodes gets stuck on “loading data” when i hit “versions”.
the .stversions folder have 10gb, which i think of unusual, but i also think it went bigger than that before without this issue.
i now realize that probably for my case, trash would serve me nearly as well.
but i do enjoy to have the older versions. gives me a peace of mind, even if it’s not really meant to be a backup - it’s still me “backupish” than trash. and i guess i have used it once or twice.
then i found this interesting script
> [@Syncthing deleted 67000 files, how do I restore?](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/syncthing-deleted-67000-files-how-do-i-restore/9896/2):
>
> Since you’re on Linux, you can do batch rename using linux tools, something like: #!/bin/bash for file in $(find /yourpath/ -type f -regextype posix-awk -regex ".\*~[0-9]{8}-[0-9]{6}.\*") do mv $file ${file::-16} done The script is based on the naming patterns used with staggered versioning, i don’t know if other versioning patterns create same filenames in .stversions. The script above recursively searches for files in a given path and its sub-directories for files named somename~12345678-1…
but it’s still not quite what i need. plus it’ll probably break when there’s more than one version of the same file…
anyway…
tl;dr;
could you please share a script which will just delete all staggered files and keep the newest? newest between staggered and current, very much like the gui works, of course. 😁
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### Author:  [@cregox](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/cregox)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/script-to-restore-all-staggered-files/16535/2 "2021-03-27T06:21:20Z")
i think this link might eventually lead to an answer, in case i forget to update it here:
> **[r/termux - bash script for loop failing on spaced file names](https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/mdk3bc/bash_script_for_loop_failing_on_spaced_file_names/)**
>
> 6 votes and 3 comments so far on Reddit
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/script-to-restore-all-staggered-files/16535/3 "2021-04-26T06:22:18Z")
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