Copying multiple folders in Mac OS X ???

In Windows, when I want to copy the contents of multiple folders into another similarly named folders, all I have to do is to select those folders and the contents get copied into the appropriate folders in the destination folders. Any new files in the folders are added to the destination folder and old ones are replaced. Other files in the destination folders remain unchanged.

However, I just discovered, almost to my horror , that when you perform the same actions in Mac OS X using Finder, the contents of the destination folders get totally replaced with the contents of the source folders. In other words, if the source folder contains 3 files and the destination folder contains 5 other files, after the copy, you don't end up with 8 files but the 3 that were originally in the source folder. The 5 original files in the destination folder get deleted!

Can any of you Mac OS X experts tell me how I can copy the contents of multiple folders without losing files in the destination folder. The only way I've been able to get around this problem was by going into each folder individually and copying files across, one folder at a time. And this can get very tedious when there are multiple levels of subfolders in a folder. I'm sure there has to be a better way of doing what I want to do without losing files.

Thanks.

Dont know if its possible but let me try, if not I will ask in mac forums and tell you later.

Leo,
When I copy items to an existing folder I hold down the option key. You will know it is the correct key because the cursor changes to a "plus" sign.

Drag and Drop the files (if you have multiple files
click on one file in the folder to activate that folder)

Go to Edit in the tool bar at the top of the screen and click on select all

Hold the option key and drag any of the files or folders to the folder you want to move to (they will all move) and drop in the destination folder

ppuga wrote:
Dont know if its possible but let me try, if not I will ask in mac forums and tell you later.

Thanks, ppuga. I appreciate any help you can provide.

Hi, Rob,

Thanks for your reply. I tried it but, unfortunately, it also works the destructive way I described in my first post. Old files are still getting deleted if they're not in the source folder. I'm running OS X 10.3.6 which I upraded to a month or two ago. I wonder if it's a bug with this release. I heard that 10.3.7 is out so I may try that next if I don't get a solution from somebody. Or, maybe it's working the way it's supposed to be working and I'm just spoiled from having used Windows for so long.

Thanks again, neighbor.

I am sure that is not it

I went back and re-read your original post. I cannot build upon what you were doing in Windows, I have always used Macs. I know what is happening now. When I do my weekly banking and I copy my Quicken file into my back-up file I get a dialog box that says "an older version of Quicken exsists in this folder. Do you want to replace it?". A few versions of OSX ago you were able to do "syncing" of the files. The dialog box would give you different options "replace" or "syncronize". If you have 2 folders-1 with 10 items and one with 12 items (10 of which are the same in the 10 item file) When you copy the items it will not destroy the 10 items it will replace them with duplicates It thinks they are newer items because chronologically the files are newer. Hope this makes sense. I hope I understand your problem correctly.
Rob

robekert wrote:
I am sure that is not it

I went back and re-read your original post. I cannot build upon what you were doing in Windows, I have always used Macs. I know what is happening now. When I do my weekly banking and I copy my Quicken file into my back-up file I get a dialog box that says "an older version of Quicken exsists in this folder. Do you want to replace it?". A few versions of OSX ago you were able to do "syncing" of the files. The dialog box would give you different options "replace" or "syncronize". If you have 2 folders-1 with 10 items and one with 12 items (10 of which are the same in the 10 item file) When you copy the items it will not destroy the 10 items it will replace them with duplicates It thinks they are newer items because chronologically the files are newer. Hope this makes sense. I hope I understand your problem correctly.
Rob

Yes, that's what I want it to do. And it does. However, the extra 2 files in the folder with the 12 items get deleted and I don't want that to happen. I want to keep the other 2 files which haven't changed but instead, they disappear on me when the copy is done, leaving me with the 10 files that were copied from the other folder.

BTW, the prompt I get when the copy sees that there's already a similarly named folder is to choose "Do not replace", "Stop", or "Replace".

Another clarification. In the example above, I'm going from the 10 item folder to the 12 item folder. Not sure if that' was the case in your example.

How about if you open the 10 item folder select all then drag to the 12 item folder. I should only copy the different items.
Rob
P.S. I may have to take a ride to Whitehall PA

That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Except that I'm dragging the folder itself (the one with the 10 items) into the parent folder that contains the 12 item folder. When my folder copy is complete, I end up with a 10 item folder instead of a 12 item folder. All I want to have happen is for the 10 items in the 10 item folder to update the 10 similar files in the 12 item folder and leave the other 2 files along.

Whereabouts are you located?

Don't drag the folder, drag the contents of the folder by "selecting all". "Select All" then hold down the option key while dragging into the destination folder. As for my location I believe I am kinda far from you. I am in Southern Delaware County-about 10 miles south of Philadelphia.
Cheers,
Rob

That's what I've been doing to get around the problem. But when I'm trying to copy the contents of multiple folders, this gets very tedious. Especially when there are multiple levels of subfolders in the folders.

10 miles south of Philly ain't that far from here. It's about an hour and half to downtown Philly from here if you don't count the traffic (the famouse last words ).