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windows-10linux-mintwinscp

How to view files not displayed and copied in WinSCP?


When copying 1,925 files (1.8GB) from Linux machine to Windows machine (where WinSCP is installed), only 1,882 files (1.53GB) end up on the Windows machine.

The following responses to similar queries may be the cause/s:

For security reasons WinSCP does not display file with suspicious filenames (such as dots only) in file panel. Hence you cannot select them for download.

https://winscp.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7029

The second error is probably because of a too long path. WinSCP does not support paths longer than 260 characters with FTP protocol: https://winscp.net/tracker/821

https://winscp.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52873#52873

My question is, how do I know which files are not being displayed and therefore not being transferred? (So that I can somehow manually ensure all Linux files end up on Windows machine).

If it was a scenario where only 10 files were involved, I could easily do a visual diff, but how to do this when there are nearly 2,000 files?

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Troubleshooting/Solution:

  • There were 3 cases of same file name with different case which I corrected, which then made file and byte count the same in WinSCP, except for the discrepancy of 1 more folder in remote folder count. Commands > Compare Directories says "No differences found".

  • Linux file manager Nemo is displaying different file count to WinSCP.

Remote (Linux):

WinSCP > right click on folder > Properties > Size: 'Calculate':

1885 files, 41 folders, 1670MB (1,751,108,846 B)

Local (Windows):

WinSCP > right click on folder > Properties (note: a different context menu is triggered here):

1885 Files, 40 folders, Size: 1.62GB (1,751,108,846 bytes)

Remote (Linux):

When using default file manager Nemo 2.8.6 on Linux:

Right click on folder > Properties:

"Contents: 1,925 items, totalling 1.8GB".

Conclusion:

So the only remaining anomalies are:

  • Extra folder count in remote via WinSCP.

  • Different file count in Linux (in comparison to WinSCP and Windows - 1925 vs 1885)

  • This difference (40) could just mean that Linux is counting Folders in its tally of Items.


Solution

  • If you can see all the 1925 files in the remote panel, use the Commands > Compare directories command to have WinSCP find, what is missing.


    Though I guess the real problem is, that all the files were actually downloaded. But you have files in the Linux directory with the same name, just a different case. Windows is case insensitive, so file like FILE.txt will overwrite file.txt when downloading.

    In this case the Compare directories command won't find any differences either.