occasionally I have a need to compare folder content, so I’m looking for an app that will easily allow me to do so. I’m familiar with Super Duper, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Chronsync which are all great back up and sync tools, but I’m not familiar with their ability to compare folders.
For instance, if I have a folder on an external SSD and a similar folder on an internal SSD and want to see and compare the differences, including which has newer versions of the same file, which would be the go to app for this? In Chronosync, I know that I’d have to create a new task, which is trivial to do, but it does take a minute and isn’t as easy as just pointing the two folders at each other.
I use Softobe’s FoldersSynchronizer extensively. It’s not free—$30—but it’s extremely full-featured. It can not only compare the files in two folders in detail, but it can also keep them synchronized with a wide variety of automated and manual options for which files get copied, which get overwritten, which get deleted, etc.
You could setup a CCc task and run it in preview mode…that will tell you the differences. Wouldn’t be surprised if Chronosync does the same and I’m sure there are other compare options but offhand can’t recommend one.
I use VisualDiffer (website, Mac App Store link). Mostly I use it for comparing pairs of text files (eg sometimes the text editor app on my iPhone creates multiple “conflicted” copies of a file in Dropbox when the iPhone has a weak Wi-Fi connection), but it can compare folders also.
If you’re talking about text files, BBEdit has a very good “Find Differences” tool that you can point at two folders, and it will give you a list of files with differences and you can click each one to see the differences for that specific file (and copy the differences one-by-one if you want). I believe this feature is even available in the Free version of BBEdit.
I also highly recommend the Kaleidoscope app which can also produce a list of file differences given two folders, and can show you the specific differences in both text and image files. It’s a subscription license, so if you only need this once, it’s about $14 for a 1-month license, or about $96 if you want to buy an annual license. (For software developers, it has an excellent 3-way merge mode, and it also understands git repositories so you can browse diffs in your source code over time or compare branches. It can even do fancy things like remove timestamps or sort JSON keys before diffing.)
I’ve used ProSync and File Synchronization and found them less than thrilling. My problem is I have several massive files in DropBox that are for the same purpose but have been duplicated several times. I’d like to know if there is a program that will allow me to check them out and update without having to download the folders. They are massive folders having multiple years of research in them. Thanks for any help.
I’m a photographer and often move images from my Mac Studio to my MacBook Pro, and occasionally copy folders containing older images to an external SSD to work on them. There are times when I need to compare the folders to see which images are the most contemporary, especially if I’ve walked away from them for a while and can’t remember which I worked on most recently.