Rclone copy overwrites dest newer file

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I am using Google Drive as remote. If the remote file is newer than local file, rclone copy will overwrite it but it seems to me it should skip.

What is your rclone version (output from rclone version)

rclone v1.52.1

  • os/arch: windows/amd64
  • go version: go1.14.4

Which OS you are using and how many bits (eg Windows 7, 64 bit)

Window 10, 64 bit

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

rclone copy d:\files\test gdrive:\test

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[gdrive]
type = drive
scope = drive

A log from the command with the -vv flag

2020/06/15 00:10:34 DEBUG : 4 go routines active
2020/06/15 00:12:29 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.52.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "copy" "d:\\files\\test" "gdrive:\\test" "--progress" "--log-file=D:\\inbox\\rclone.log" "--log-level=DEBUG" "--dry-run"]
2020/06/15 00:12:29 DEBUG : Using config file from "C:\\Users\\wesley\\.config\\rclone\\rclone.conf"
2020/06/15 00:12:29 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "d:\\files\\test" to be canonical "//?/d:/files/test"
2020/06/15 00:12:30 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "gdrive:\\test" to be canonical "gdrive:test"
2020/06/15 00:12:31 DEBUG : Google drive root 'test': Waiting for checks to finish
2020/06/15 00:12:31 DEBUG : myfile.txt: Sizes differ (src 4 vs dst 12)
2020/06/15 00:12:31 DEBUG : Google drive root 'test': Waiting for transfers to finish
2020/06/15 00:12:31 NOTICE: myfile.txt: Not copying as --dry-run
2020/06/15 00:12:31 INFO  : 
Transferred:   	         0 / 0 Bytes, -, 0 Bytes/s, ETA -
Checks:                 1 / 1, 100%
Transferred:            1 / 1, 100%
Elapsed time:         0.0s

2020/06/15 00:12:31 DEBUG : 4 go routines active

hello and welcome to the forum,

the docs for copy is confusing.
but that is how copy works.

if you want a different behavior, let us know.
there are many flags that be used

https://rclone.org/docs/#ignore-existing

This may be what you're wanting. Its not a bug. the copy/sync tells rclone to sync or copy whats on local to the remote. It doesn't know what you want to keep where.

-u, --update Skip files that are newer on the destination.

1 Like

Thanks for all the response.

@calisro This is exactly what I need, thank you!

This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.