Mystery of the Day: DIM updates files that don't need to be downloaded
Subtropic Pixel
Posts: 2,388
Hello:
I'm trying to figure out a mystery. After using DIM to download new products or even updated products, it's changing the file update dates for numerous files (zips and whatnot) that were not actually downloaded in the just-finished DIM session. This causes subsequent file sync operations to needlessly copy files that really were never updated in my last DIM download session. It also causes needless incremental backups to be taken when my backups run overnight.
Here's my setup:
Desktop Computer: Download folder is on G: partition, which is on an internal hard drive that always stays in the desktop case. DIM on desktop points to this folder for downloads. Installs go to P: partition, which resides on an internal SSD. I have "delete installer after installation" turned off to avoid re-downloading in the rare (but occasional) instances where I need to re-install something.
Laptop Computer: Download folder is on Q: partition, which is an external USB 3.0 hard drive. DIM on laptop points to this folder for downloads. Installs go to P: partition, which is an internal SSD on this machine (not to be confused with the "P" partition on the desktop; they are separate partitions that just happen to contain the same files). Just like the desktop, I do not delete installer zip files after installation.
File Transfer: To avoid the hassle of re-downloading content to two different machines, I use DIM on either machine (or both, at differnt times), then just syncronize my download folders so that both machines have a locally available drive partition containing all of my downloads, DAZ and "other". To do the sync, I remove the laptop's drive and plug it into the desktop, where it becomes "E"). Then I sync the relevant folders E and G. Microsoft SyncToy and Free File Sync both do a good job of syncing, but I prefer the latter because it is maintained by the vendor and it's a lot faster than Microsoft's solution.
The Problem: After using DIM to download new purchases and updates, I see some files are getting synced but should not be, becasue they were not among the products that I downloaded (whether new or updated products) from DAZ. Both DIM on the desktop and DIM on the laptop are behaving the same way, and this problem is not new; it may have been happening for up to a year or more, but I always thought it was SyncToy. Now that I have switched to Free File Sync, I see the same behavior, so I think it's not the sync process but maybe something that DIM is doing.
Question: Has anybody else observed this behavior, where DIM updates some of your already-downloaded files that were not part of the most current download?
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Comments
Best to submit a support ticket on this.
Which files are you seeing change? I noticed something like this yesterday with some of the dsx files on my desktop when copying the zips to move to my laptop manually.
I believe DIM updates the local 'dsx' meta-files that describe the actual zips each time the updates are run. I've seen the same effect on my backups as well. The dsx files are very small, relatively speaking - 300 characters each maybe, so even with a bunch of them (i've got too many...) the storage burden is minimal.
ms
I download to a laptop and then sync the result with my home system - and there are usually several hundreed .dsx files that copy over as updated even though nothing in them has changed. I'm not sure, but I think DIM pulls down all the .dsx files when it connects to the store, and at some point they don't all fit in memory, so some of them get written out to the download folder.
The .dsx files are updated even if you run DIM offline (I do all my downloads on a laptop then copy them over onto my non-internet-connected desktop PC to install and use them). Every time I open DIM on either machine all the .dsx files are updated (in most cases with zero apparent change to the contents)
There's a cut-off somewhere; I have over 7,000 items in DIM
and I 'only' got rewrites on 5,000 of them today.
Maybe this explains why sometimes it takes my DIM 5 minutes to open. Over 16,000 files (not products)--partly because when there are both DS and PS versions I show all. (Anything from DS 2 or 3 days I usually install the PS version.)
If you haven't installed a product yet, and it is updated, there's no reason for it to be listed in the update section because you'll be getting the updated version when you eventually download it. When you really think of it, the programming in DIM is much more complex than one realizes.
Thank you all for your help.
I will pay attention for DSX updates the next time I do open DIM. I would really rather not keep transferring "not changed" files from one machine to the other and then back again because I had to open DIM on the receiving machine in order to install the new or updated products. Hah.
Assuming that I am seeing this same phenomenon, then I suppose I have two options:
1. "Do Nothing" and just let it happen and let the DSX's continue to get transferred back and forth (and be sure to frequently empty my Recycle Bins on both machines).
or..
2. Change the file sync criteria to include content changes in addition to an update in date/timestamp.
Thank you all; you're simply brilliant.