Modified date is changed on synchronized files

[JC]

Hi

I am using FolderSync to automatically copy images and videos from my phone to my NAS. This all works fine except that FolderSync changes both the modified date and the created date of all files. I have tried using both FTP and SMB protocol.

This is especially bad for the video files since they don't have any EXIF information containing the original time of capture.

I am using Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S (also tried Xperia Neo) if that should matter.

Am I doing something wrong, or could this perhaps be fixed in an upgraded FolderSync?

Regards

/Johannes

[Support User]

Hi

For FTP the timestamps are handled by the server. A few servers support changing the modified time after upload, but FolderSync doesn't currently support this.

However, using SMB Foldersync attempts to set the modified timestamp of the uploaded file to that of the source file (that on the phone). This may not succeed in your case, but unless an exception is thrown when this happens, which should cause your syncs to fail, I really can't say why.

Best regards

Anders Carlsen

Software Developer

If you like our apps, please give them a 5-star rating. Thanks. :-)

 

Tacit Dynamics

Web:www.tacit.dk - Email: sup...@tacit.dk

Android Market: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Tacit+Dynamics

2012/1/2 JC <johann...@gmail.com>

[JC]

Hi again

Thanks for your quick reply!

It seem like I was wrong about the file dates, it works work with SMB. I was probably looking at the FTP result all the time. I also had some files with incorrect set date on the memory card, which might have confused me.

Thanks & regards

/Johannes

[mattuw]

I saw this issue as well but didn't find any docs on it and this was the only relevant post I could find in the forum.

New to the app but was exactly what I was looking for.  Not sure why the box/dropbox/insync type apps don't give this functionality themselves.  So happy to have found you.

Using google docs, I see the created/modified dates on the files are changed to sync time.  This might be because the dates are controlled by the google docs APIs...but it would be great to have documentation on this issue. 

Like a table that says:

STORAGE      DATE_CREATED_PRESERVED        DATE_MODIFIED_PRESERVED

GDocs        NO                            NO

Dropbox      ?                             ?

Skydrive...

Amazon S3...

Other, Samba YES                           YES

Other, FTP   NO                            NO

Not complaining about the app because I know a lot of this is dependent on the cloud/API but this is an annoying issue and may affect which of the many cloud providers I use with FolderSync (gimme my dates!).

Thanks!

[Support User]

Such a table can now be found here:  http://www.tacit.dk/foldersync/faq#Q26 

However, no cloud providers actually support setting the modified time, so it may be of limited usage. Only SMB, FTP, SFTP and WebDAV supports it - WebDAV is not supported by FolderSync though.

Best regards

Anders Carlsen

Software Developer

If you like our apps, please give them a 5-star rating. Thanks. :-)

 

Tacit Dynamics

www.tacit.dk - Android Market - Support

[mattuw]

Thanks Anders, 

It makes some sense that the cloud providers are setting the modified date to upload time, but unless the document was created by the cloud (as opposed to uploaded to the cloud) you would think they would preserve the file creation time.

If the creation time was preserved, that would be enough for me even if the modified values are tweaked on upload (despite no modification to file).

Hate to be a pest, but any chance we can add another column to that table for created timestamps?  :)

Thanks!

[Anders]

Well, created time is most likely not editable for any providers or protocols.

Best regards
Anders Carlsen