How to re-connect an older directory without losing newer files

[tjluoma]

Assume I have a folder called “Important Stuff” which syncs to my laptop and my desktop.

Then I disconnect the laptop but keep the folder “Important Stuff” on it but do not delete or add files to it.

Next, I make changes to “Important Stuff” on the desktop. It is very important that I not lose these changes.

Now, if I reconnect “Important Stuff” on my laptop, is it safe to assume that the desktop version will overwrite the laptop version, not the other way around?

(Let's assume for the sake of this discussion that “Important Stuff” is large enough that I really do not want to re-sync the entire folder if I can avoid it, as in over 100GB.)

[RomanZ]

@tjluoma In short: yes. It is safe for 2.3 and newer

In details. Older versions (2.0.x IIRC) Sync could determine improper time when re-adding advanced folder. Currently, Sync just grabs the mtime when adding folder and determines which peer has newer version of a file. In your case that would be Desktop, so Desktop will start seeding changed files to your Laptop.

Although there is one peculiarity which you should be aware of. Sometimes, users explicitly copy old files in synced folder. Such files has older mtime, so Sync just "remembers" the fact that user wanted to keep that file. This information is kept in DB. When you disconnect the folder, DB is wiped out and when re-adding folders, such old-timestamped files may be replaced with new ones if there are any other peers that keep newer version.