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Forum Discussion

biglickProfile's avatar
biglickProfile
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

Maintain file and folder permission during a copy

I need a way to maintain all file and folder permissions while cleaning up my Dropbox.   Currently when I move files or folders it replacing the permissions I had set previously.  What is the best way to maintain the security set on the original folder during the copy process?   Is there a copy with permissions option?

 

Please email me at [email address removed] if you have suggestions.

  • Elixir's avatar
    Elixir
    Star | Level 19

    Hello biglickProfile, which operating system are you using? If you are on Windows (or macOS), and copying to non-NTFS formatted (or non APFS, HFS formatted in case of macOS) drive, you might lose some attributes. If you are on linux and you can try using cp with -p flag to preserve permissions or use rsync with -a flag. 

     

    • biglickProfile's avatar
      biglickProfile
      Explorer | Level 4

      Elixir, we are wanting to move in Dropbox, for example making an (Archive or Old) folder where we can move the files in to while we are cleaning up the Dropbox space, then move off or delete once we determine the need.   I do not want to just move them to a google workspace or windows before I have time to clean up some.   Can we not move with in Dropbox and maintain security?

      • Elixir's avatar
        Elixir
        Star | Level 19

        Sorry, I might have misunderstood your issue. Are you talking about the maintaining Dropbox shared folder permissions (I thought operating system read-write-execute permissions for user, group, and others)? In case of Dropbox shared folder permissions, if you copy and paste the folders, I think it won't maintain the permissions. But if you move a shared folder inside a non-shared folder, it should maintain the permissions. You cannot however move a shared folder inside another shared folder. 

  • Acez's avatar
    Acez
    Helpful | Level 5

    Copy or move of a directory into another directory, clears permissions and sets new permissions according the directory where you copied/moved.

     

    This isn't always usefull/desired: there should be an option to choose between this behaviour or to just copy permissions as they are already set. Or is there such a feature somewhere I can't find?