Add a file conflict dialog to permit copying/moving folders that contain overlapping files

[ShapeShifter499]

I don't know exactly if this a bug or a feature yet to be added. But I see this issue.

With the WebUI or mobile apps it's not possible to "merge" two folders of same name into each other.

For example moving "Downloads" and it's contents into "Somefolder/Downloads" where a folder named Downloads already exists and merging the two folders, prompting to merge subfolders and asking if files of same name should be replaced or not.

Currently this does not work. Meaning if a user has a lot of similar named folders and would like to move each of their contents into one giant folder they'd have to do so manually.

[cloudwindy]

+1, any progress on this?

[overflow-ITA]

+1

[Intichar]

+1

[AubinF]

This would be so useful !

[ShapeShifter499]

Workaround is to merge using WebDAV but that is clunky

[joshtrichards]

Can't you just use the select all checkbox while in the "Downloads" folder then choose the copy or move action to place them in the destination folder?

[AubinF]

@joshtrichards

That works only if all the file/folder names in the source folder are different from the file/folder names in the destination folder. Any file/folder from the source folder that has a counterpart with the same name in the destination folder will not be copied, with an error message (see pics).

While it may be ok to copy the contents of the source to the destination manually, imagine if there are many files/folders with identical names, or nested folders. It becomes a nightmare to do everything by hand.

Instead we would like Nextcloud to behave like the file manager on any computer would, asking whether to replace / merge / rename the files/folders. That's sort of the point :)

[AubinF]

The lazy workaround I found was in fact to download the folders to merge on my computer, then merge them using the file manager of my computer, then let the nextcloud client sync the changes to the server, then deselect the merged folder in the options of the Nextcloud client so the data is removed only from my computer (not the server).

You could also open a terminal on your server and move the files with rsync, then have nextcloud rescan the file system.

It's a bit awkward to do it this way, so it would be great if Nextcloud added this feature. It's pretty standard for a file management system, especially one that has otherwise powerful features.

[joshtrichards]

I think it's the "merge" part that confused me. I thought you were either asking something exotic or that was already there, but I couldn't tell which. :-)

asking whether to replace / merge / rename the files/folders

This sounds like the central feature request. Got it.

Basically a file conflict dialog:

• Skip
• Replace
• Compare

[AubinF]

@joshtrichards

Basically a file conflict dialog:

• Skip
• Replace
• Compare

Yes, exactly 👍

[lssong99]

Actually, using Webdav will result the content of destination folder to be deleted and replaced with only content of source folder without warning. I am using NC server 29.0.0. I think this is a bug?

Windows desktop client does not have this problem (since the merge is performed by Windows Explorer?) but with a direct Webdav Client this will happen.

[ShapeShifter499]

@joshtrichards I'm sorry I wasn't more clear but yes that is exactly what I meant.

@lssong99 I was using Gnome Files (Nautilus) under Linux to do this which has a feature to mount Webdav shares, with the proper libraries and supporting applications installed. I didn't know a WebDav client might do differently. That sounds like an issue of the WebDav client you are using, but I could be wrong.

[lssong99]

@joshtrichards I'm sorry I wasn't more clear but yes that is exactly what I meant.

@lssong99 I was using Gnome Files (Nautilus) under Linux to do this which has a feature to mount Webdav shares, with the proper libraries and supporting applications installed. I didn't know a WebDav client might do differently. That sounds like an issue of the WebDav client you are using, but I could be wrong.

Just to make sure, when you are using Gnome Files, when moving one directory to the other places where the name of the directory already exists, Gnome Files will merge the files in those two directories instead deleted destination and replace with source directory? Any error message or what will happen when file with same name exists?

I am using MiXplorer for Android (https://mixplorer.com/) I am also asking the author of this app to see if he could confirm this issue.

By looking at the Webdav API document of NextCloud server, it seems the client need to do all those merge/rename/overwrite job and just call/set relevant property (T or F).... Maybe MiXplorer's issue....