Best Practice for foldering reorganization

[jsoules]

I have a digital archive/collection of files that's been accumulating over about 15 years. I know it contains many duplicates, and could stand to be reorganized a lot, but I've always been hesitant to do so for fear of losing data.

I was currently hoping to set up sync between two machines, and then rename and reorganize files on one machine and let the other mirror the changes so that I wind up with two copies of the same well-organized file system. These systems will both be running Ubuntu/Linux.

However, I've read several posts here and in the help documentation that say that users have had problems when trying to delete files from one peer, or when renaming folders, getting those changes to stick on other peers. I am particularly nervous about this article on moving/renaming folders.

Is there a comprehensive list of best practices to avoid getting a bunch of duplicate content and, worst case, inadvertently deleting many files? Or do I have to get all the sorting done before I go live with syncing?

[FlashPan]

I also have a large archive of files/folders (6TB).  Although under windows.  I do make changes to filenames, replace files with newer same named files, edit metadata etc.  I've never had an issue.  Although my setup is that the machine I am sync-ing to is offline when I make my changes.  It then powers up in the middle of the night to sync any new data/changes etc.

[Frank Maier]

The article you linked to is about "Can I Move Or Rename A Syncing Folder?"

It's not about the folders inside the Syncing Folder. Of course you can rename and move folders in your syncing folders and the changes will get applied to the other machines. The same with files etc.

It's just if you connect two folders and sync their content, then a name change of these two connected parent folders won't get synced. Their content however, will get synced, every change will get synced!