New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

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lnbrantley
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New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

* [P] When searching for duplicates and selecting them, xplorer² arranges the sort order by date so that the OLDER file in each group remains (it is not selected), and you can delete the newer duplicates, if that's what you want. Of course if the duplicate checking parameters include date, this sorting is pointless as all files will have the same dates by construction!

Can this be turned off, so that it works the way it did in earlier versions?
Previously you could sort using any column in a scrap window and the files lower in the sorted window would be selected for deletion.
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nikos
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by nikos »

can you give me an example where sorting by a different column works better than "date modified"?
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

OK, say I have a bunch of files in folder A and its sub-folders and in also folder B and its sub-folders. There are some files duplicated between the A folder tree and the B folder tree. Some of the files in B are newer, and some in A, I want to keep all the ones in the B folder tree and delete all the duplicates in the A folder tree. Maybe I like the way the files are organized in the B tree better. I don't care about the dates. In the old version, I select A & B, flatten, click on the Path column header twice to do reverse sort on pathname so that all the files in B are on top and all the files in A are a the bottom. Click Duplicates. All the duplicate files in A are selected. Click Delete. Done.

Can't do that anymore in the new version.

Even simpler, I want to get rid of all duplicate files in a single folder, keeping the first duplicate alphabetically and get rid of those later in the alphabetical sort order. I care only about the names, and don't care at all about the dates. Trivial in the old version. Can't do it in the new version.

I do stuff like this all the time, and have been doing so since version 1.This is a significant loss of functionality for me.

The old version would allow you to sort by date and check duplicates based on that if that's what you wanted. So there's really no new functionality, it just saves you a click or two.

Please consider adding an option to disable this new feature in a future update.

Thanks.
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by nikos »

it is possible to select the files afterwards, using a rule, e.g. path contains "folder B" and such. But anyway, I will add an option for this behavior

ps. I have a better idea. I'll leave the new mode when people are using the duplicate checker in "automatic" mode (start from the main xplorer2 window), but when you manually insert items in a scrap window and start the duplicates checker from there, it will respect whatever sort mode you have
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

Sounds good - thanks!
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

Installed 4.4.0.1
Much better! Thanks!
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

Just upgraded from pro to ultimate, and found a discrepancy between the two in the way duplicates are selected.

Say you have two folders A and B with identical contents.
Select A and B and flatten.
Find Duplicates.
In professional, the files from B are selected.
In ultimate, the files from A are selected.

I would expect the files from B to be selected, in keeping with the rule that the duplicates further down in the scrap pane are to be selected.

If you sort on the Path column before finding Duplicates, the two have the same behavior.
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by nikos »

are you sure pro/ultimate behave differently? you can run them side by side, making sure they are sorted the same, and see what happens. If indeed there's a difference, please let me know exactly what are you doing. How are you loading folders A and B for example?

the new ultimate has a much faster duplicate checker but I made sure that "select duplicates" would work as before

ps. just to clarify, if you are using the find duplicates command from the MAIN xplorer2 window, then the newer (or older? :)) duplicate will be left unselected (and all the rest marked for deletion)

if you manually put stuff in a scrap container and then check for duplicates, the existing sort order will determine what is selected and what not. If you happen to be sorting by DATE MODIFIED, then it will be the same as above paragraph
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by lnbrantley »

nikos wrote: 2021 May 18, 06:11 If indeed there's a difference, please let me know exactly what are you doing. How are you loading folders A and B for example?
I'm selecting A and B in the main window, then flatten. I check for duplicates in the scrap window as it initially appears, not doing any sorting.
nikos wrote: 2021 May 18, 06:11 if you manually put stuff in a scrap container and then check for duplicates, the existing sort order will determine what is selected and what not.
If I flatten A, then select the files in B, and then add to scrap, I see the same inconsistent behavior.

If I sort by any column after putting the files in the scrap container, both pro and ult do exactly what I would expect.

After some additional experimentation, I found that the behavior is not 100% reproducible. I tried putting 2 small text files in A and B. Could not reproduce the problem with that setup.

I can reproduce the problem with 6 JPG files.

Here's the scrap window after flattening A & B. Files from A are at the top, then files from B. This is the same in pro & ultimate.

Image

Check for duplicates in professional. Files from B are selected, as expected.

Image

Check for duplicates using ultimate. Files from A are selected. This is not the expected behavior.

Image

It appears to have sorted by size in the ultimate version.
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Re: New duplicate selection feature - turn off?

Post by nikos »

with the new "fast logic" in ultimate, you must have a sort order before you start checking. Call it a price for faster results!
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