Merging the files in two folders

Is there any way to merge the files in two folder? The copy command replaces existing files, but I would like to merge folders so that different versions are saves (as 1, 2, 3) or the most recent is saved. (Like Windows Explorer does.)

Not in the Finder.
You can try a 3rd party tool like http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/Folder-Merge.shtml
Windows doesn't do either of those things, by the way - the version you are copying to the destination will always try and overwrite, no matter which is newer.

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How to Merge the Contents of Two Folders in Lion, Keeping the Newer Versions of Duplicate Files.

Select and copy all the contents of the folder containing the newer files. Paste the files ONTO the folder containing the older files. The unique files will be copied into the older folder without further ado. For the duplicates, a window will appear warning that a file with the same name already exists in the older folder. Check the "Apply to All" box and click on the Replace button, not the Skip button. These steps will merge all the files in the newer folder into the older folder, replacing the duplicates with the copies from the newer folder.
Unfortunately, the only information that the warning window provides about the duplicates is their common name, not sizes, dates, or times. These steps worked for me because I knew for certain that all the newer files were in one folder.

Great, I just lost 10 GB of data thanks to OSX folder merge... because appaerantly I should have known better not to keep a subfolder inside my folder I was trying to merge
I can not beleive more people don't have a problem with this. Merge contents in Lion does NOT merge contents if 1 or more of those supposed "contents" is a subfolder
Merge contents of two folders only works for files, it does NOT work for subfolders!!!!
Can we please get this acknowledged as a bug that needs fixing?
EXAMPLE:
Drive1 / Folder1
               - text1.txt
               - text2.txt
               - / subfolder / text3.text
MERGE TO
Drive2 / Folder1
               - text1.txt (this gets updated / merged)
               - text2.txt (this gets updated / merged)
               - / subfolder /
                         - text.txt
                         - text2.txt     (this should get text3.txt merged into it, from Drive1, but instead this subfolder is REPLACED, and NOT MERGED!!)
Why would i want to replace a folder if I'm trying to merge it!?
Almost 2013 and OSX still cant merge a folder? unbelievable

How can i compare the contents of two folders ?

how can i compare the contents of two folders and find out which files are in one but not in the other?? Knowing how to do this would be the best thing ever, especially when dealing with a large number of files. Often, for instance, I'm dealing with a large number of images, processing them, and saving the retouched ones to a new folder, and need to check that they are all there. If there are say three files missing in the second folder (out of say a hundred in total) being able to automate the process of elimination would be very useful. Please help!!!
B

I really wish I knew the answer to this. I work between two macs, a G5 and MacBook Pro when I'm on the go. Each time I move from one to the other I have to copy all my files to the computer I'm going to work on, so I end up with the same files being duplicated. It's not a problem if it's not much data but in my case the it can be to 30GB, mostly graphics files, photoshop, motion, final cut pro, etc.
There's has got to be a way automator can make a comparison between two folders to sort out what's changed and what's remained the same. It would be nice also if this feature could be done globally on the hard disk using spotlight's technology to stop files being duplicated in places you didn't even know about and taking up valuable disk space. I'm not sure how this could be done.
Any bright ideas Apple?

How do you merge the data of two MIDI regions?

How do you merge the data of two MIDI regions into one MIDI region without using copy and paste functions in the piano roll editor?

Sorry - didn't make myself clear. The glue tool would be no good here. I meant that I wanted, for example, to merge the MIDI contents of two regions that are perhaps on different tracks but play back at the same time, i.e. I want to add the 2nd region's MIDI to the 1st region's MIDI, but without having to go into the piano roll editor and cut and paste the data.

How do I find the files in all folders named Camera 1?

Is there a way to search and find all of the video files in a certaint folder name? For example: I have many folders in different directories labled as Camera 1. I would like to be able to search for the files in all folders named Camera 1, but exclude any similar file types that might exist in other folders such as Camera 2, Camera 3, etc... Is there any way to do this?

You should be able to sort by file name, file size, or last modified date by clicking the column heading. If the column headings are gone or you do not have all those details, there might be a way to reset your FireFTP settings but I've never researched it.

How to merge the contents of two Photo Booths?

Hello. We have two Macbooks (Old + Existing). Both are/were updated to Maverick. However, I have restored the Old Macbook back to original (Snow Leopard) in order to sell. I manually took off files as well as doing a Time Machine backup.
I would like to add all the photos and videos from Photo Booth on the Old Macbook into my Existing Macbook.
Is this possible either a. through a specific file in Time Machine (I do NOT wish to replace the Existing with the Old. This is a merger.) or b. with the Photo Booth library I copied onto an external harddrive? However, this is one 1.75gb file with the Photo Booth icon (a film strip) rather than separate photo files. I am unsure how to access individual photographs or videos. I was hesitant to open it up in case it negatively affected the Existing Photo Booth.
Thanks for any assistance.

Great, I just lost 10 GB of data thanks to OSX folder merge... because appaerantly I should have known better not to keep a subfolder inside my folder I was trying to merge
I can not beleive more people don't have a problem with this. Merge contents in Lion does NOT merge contents if 1 or more of those supposed "contents" is a subfolder
Merge contents of two folders only works for files, it does NOT work for subfolders!!!!
Can we please get this acknowledged as a bug that needs fixing?
EXAMPLE:
Drive1 / Folder1
               - text1.txt
               - text2.txt
               - / subfolder / text3.text
MERGE TO
Drive2 / Folder1
               - text1.txt (this gets updated / merged)
               - text2.txt (this gets updated / merged)
               - / subfolder /
                         - text.txt
                         - text2.txt     (this should get text3.txt merged into it, from Drive1, but instead this subfolder is REPLACED, and NOT MERGED!!)
Why would i want to replace a folder if I'm trying to merge it!?
Almost 2013 and OSX still cant merge a folder? unbelievable

Is there a way to combine (merge) the contents of two directories in Finder?

In Finder, under Favorites, I have two similar directories, one labeled Documents, and the other, with a house icon, labeled with my name. I think I imported the latter from my old Windows computer when I was a Mac neophyte. There are many duplicate subdirectories, and many duplicate files, but they are not exact duplicates. Is there an easy way to merge the two directories so that all my documents are in the Documents directory?

Your home folder (with the house icon) will have by default several subfolders, and "Documents" is one of them. The Home folder stores all files used by your user account, inclusing music, photos, movies, etc., the "Documents" folder will document like files, databases, text documents, ...
There is no problem to move all fies from your Home Folder to the "Documents" folder, but I would keep the standard folders "Downloads","Movies", "Pictures", "Music", "Public". These folders are the default locations, where applications will be looking for files by default, if no previous location has been set up.

Comparing files in two folders to find duplicates using part of file name

I'm not sure if this is something Automator or perhaps Terminal can do, hoping someone might be able to offer guidance or suggestions.
I have two folders filled with files of photographs.
First folder has approx 15,000 files.
Second folder has approx 1,200 files.
I need to compare the files in the two folders and remove duplicates from the First folder. In other words, the 1,200 files in the Second folder are also in the First folder and they need to be removed from the First folder, leaving 15,000 - 1,200 = 13,800 files in the First folder.
To add a wrinkle to the comparison (nothing is ever that easy), the file names are consistent between folders for the first 17 characters (files follow the format of my name_6 digit date_4 digit # sequence, ie nickB0904087110.jpg) but in the Second folder, the files will have an additional tag added to the file name (ie nickB090408_7110Final.jpg).
Any suggestions or help much appreciated!
nick

Old post, sorry, but for the sake of trying to answer it:
The method described here can accomplish the goal, as I understand it.
http://texo.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/comparing-large-directories-fast-in-osx-or- linux/
rsync -rvn --delete /FirstDirectory /SecondDirectory
(He describes: The 'n' flag is a 'dry-run'; remove it and the files will be copied. And '--delete' deletes any files NOT in the FirstDirectory.)
I found I needed to put slashes at the end of the directory name too. ... /Directory1/ /Directory2/
That way it seems to compare those actual folders. Without the slashes, it just put a copy of Directory1 into Directory2. I'm sure there's something I don't understand about rsync though.

Print without opening the file (using two Adobe versions)

I used this a lot but recently it's not working. Right click on the file, hit Print from the drop down and the file magiclly prints. (this magic saves a lot of time)
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I have Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Pro and also Adobe Reader 9.1 installed. I have reader because many websites require 8.0 or higher for pdf browser viewing. I am guessing the problem is somewhere in the file type association but don't know how to fix it.
It used to work for me but after some update it's not workinig no more
Thanks for your help!!!

If you have a postscript printer or rip which has the ability to create hot folders to link to the printer queues you could simply drag-n-drop and PDL (page description language) file like PDF, PS, EPS to that hot folder to initiate printing. Again, very dependent on your printer/rip device.

Jsp code (js code) to display(tree) the files and sub folders in a folder

Hi all
plz can any one send me the source in jsp or js to display in tree structure for files and sub folders in a folder.

There are dozens of Javascript tree widgets available on the Internet. Some are free. Some are good. Google will find them for you.
(The only relevance of JSP to your question is that yes, you can generate HTML that uses one of those Javascript tree widgets.)

I have recently transferred data from my old PC to my new Mac Book Pro (Mavericks OS). Each transfer creates a new User account (titled 'Owner', 'Owner 1', etc). I want to merge the files from these transfers into my main user account. Help?

I have recently transferred data from my old PC to my new Mac Book Pro (Mavericks OS). Each transfer creates a new User account (titled 'Owner', 'Owner 1', etc). I want to merge / consolidate the files from these newly created User accounts into my main user account. Is there a tutorial for this process, or any tips? Anyone?

Four transfers. After the initial attempt with Migration Assistant failed (after hours and hours of wifi transfer) I did "mini-transfers" of more manageable, smaller bits of files -- my music in one, photos in another, etc. Since posting my question in this forum, i contacted Apple support, chatted with Angela, and she suggested getting an ethernet-USB adapter for my mac, connecting my external drive with ethernet and transferring files manually -- that is, NOT using the Migration Assistant at all. She sent me this link to help: Switch Basics: Migrate your Windows files to your Mac. I appreciate your response, tho', Csound1!

On my iphone 4s i am unable to see the files in my folders on hotmail

when i go into hotmail on my phone it shows my folders but when i open them they are all empty. how can i get the emails from these folders from my computer onto my phone

Are you accessing the account with the Mail app?
If so and you want all server stored mailboxes available on your iPhone, you must create/access the account as an Exchange account. Instructions for doing so should be available via Microsoft's Hotmail website or try a Google search for it.

Transfering updated files between two folders

Hi all,
I am new to java programming and have not dealt much with it till date.I just need a source code which would help me check a folder each time it is updated with a new file and then transfer the file to a new folder on the same computer.All this should run automatically.If not through java can sum1 suggest an alternate solution.

i have an idea .It would be nice of you if you could help me with it.
File class has a method listFiles which return array of files under that folder.
File f = new File(folderName);
File files[] = f.listFiles();
if(files.isFile())
// do your stuff
Can I execute the above code with a delay loop which would keep checking teh folder with a delay of 15 min(say) during which if the folder is receiving new entries it would transfer the files(using further code) to a new folder.

When i try to convert files it is making me save the file before i merge the files one at a time.

Please help. I have windows 7 but use vista on my laptop and remote into my desktop when working from home. I have Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro on my computer. When I try to merge files and convert into a single PDF file it give me a save as box for each file to be saved separately. It was working on my computer about 2 weeks ago and then it just stop working. I don't know if it has anything to do with the vista laptop or not. How can this be fixed?

Hi Anita,
We regret for the inconvenience caused to you, I would like to know certain facts in order to assist you more accurately:
Are you still unable to use the service?
How exactly are you trying to convert your pdf file?
Are you logged in using the same adobe ID using which you purchased the subscription?
Which URL are you using to access the online service?
Regards,
Rahul

How do I MERGE the purchases of two iTunes accounts into one Family Share?

We have purchased many apps via two iTunes accounts. How do we merge these purchases into on Family Share account

Hi MacHead2010,
I am not quite sure exactly what you mean by your question. It is not possible to merge two iTunes Store accounts. See this article for reference -
Frequently asked questions about Apple ID - Apple Support
Using Family Sharing, however, does allow all members of a Family Sharing group to use the content such as music, apps, etc on each other's devices.
See this article for how to set up Family Sharing -
OS X Yosemite: Set up Family Sharing
This article will tell you what content can be shared -
Which purchased content can I share using Family Sharing - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Merging the files in two folders

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