Mountain Lion Skip Duplicate Files During Copy/move

[Guest New to Mac]

Hi guys,

For PC, when I copy / move files from 1 location to another location, the system will always ask me if I want to skip those files that is already in the destination location. If I choose to skip, it will still copy the rest that do not have a duplicate in the destination location.

However, in mountain lion, I was only give "keep both" "replace" or "stop". So if i select stop, it will stop the copying / moving process totally. Unless I select replace which will take up more time. Is there any way that I can skip those files that is already in the destination location but yet carry on copying those that were not?

If not, I will have to copy 1 by 1 over just to compare? Gosh!!!! Can die leh..... I have a lot to do leh. Changing hard disk.

[Bumfuzzled]

Does it matter if you replace the existing files when they have the same content?

[Bern]

Try using 'cp' or 'rsync' from the terminal.

Either command should do what you need

Recursively copy files and directories, existing files are only copied if they are older in the destination folder:

cp -ur /source/dir/* /dest/dir/*

Copy and ignore any existing files:

rsync -auv --ignore-existing /source/dir/ dest/dir/

[Guest New to Mac]

Does it matter if you replace the existing files when they have the same content?

Hi mavricboy,

Yes it does matter. Imagine you have 200 video files to copy over to another hard disk which some files are already exist in the external hard disk. Given the size of the videos, it will definitely cut down alot of your time to replace all those existing files.

Try using 'cp' or 'rsync' from the terminal. Either command should do what you need Recursively copy files and directories, existing files are only copied if they are older in the destination folder: cp -ur /source/dir/* /dest/dir/* Copy and ignore any existing files: rsync -auv --ignore-existing /source/dir/ dest/dir/

Hi Bern,

Thanks for your help, but for those commands that you given, it's kinda too chim to me...

What is a terminal? Where can I find it? Sorry me a noob in mac.

Is it going to be a 1 time thing that I just key into the terminal so that in future I can just drag and drop, and it will pop up the option and allow me to skip those duplicate files? Or do I have to physically type in those commands everytime?

[hessian]

Hi mavricboy,

Yes it does matter. Imagine you have 200 video files to copy over to another hard disk which some files are already exist in the external hard disk. Given the size of the videos, it will definitely cut down alot of your time to replace all those existing files.

Hi Bern,

Thanks for your help, but for those commands that you given, it's kinda too chim to me...

What is a terminal? Where can I find it? Sorry me a noob in mac.

Is it going to be a 1 time thing that I just key into the terminal so that in future I can just drag and drop, and it will pop up the option and allow me to skip those duplicate files? Or do I have to physically type in those commands everytime?

Terminal.app

Or open spotlight and type 'term..' it should pop up.

No, you have to key them in every time, but you can alias them if you use those specific arguments often.

[Guest New to Mac]

Terminal.app

Or open spotlight and type 'term..' it should pop up.

No, you have to key them in every time, but you can alias them if you use those specific arguments often.

Hi hessian,

Thanks for your help. I managed to find a more simple solution. In case anyone needs it. Can follow the below step.

Step 1 - Click on the file and drag over to the folder and drop.

Step 2 - A window message open up with "Keep Both", "Stop", "Replace" came up.

Step 3 - Press and hold down the "Option key", "Keep Both" will change to "Skip"

Step 4 - Then click on the "Skip" while still holding on to the "Option Key"

Bear in mind that this only applies to copying of files. Not folders or sub folders. :-)