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Bug 742463 - drag+drop folder RANDOMLY copies instead of moving (same source and destination)
drag+drop folder RANDOMLY copies instead of moving (same source and destination)
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: File and Folder Operations
3.22.x
Other Linux
: Normal critical
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2015-01-06 15:04 UTC by teo (Account deactivated)
Modified: 2018-01-17 12:33 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description teo (Account deactivated) 2015-01-06 15:04:26 UTC
Steps to reproduce:
1 - open a nautilus window and navigate to a folder A that contains several folders
2 - open another nautilus window and navigate to another folder B
3 - drag a folder from folder A to folder B
4 - repeat step 3 several times

Expected: given that folders A and B are on the same physical filesystem, all folders dragged and dropped should be MOVED, not copied. If A and B were on different physical disks, then all draggged and dropped folders should be systematically copied, but this is not the case.

Observed: some folders get moved, as expected, but some others, randomly, get copied instead. If you then delete the copy and repeat the exact same drag-n-drop operation, most of the times it will be moved, as expected. That is, the behavior is COMPLETELY RANDOM.
Comment 1 Rafael K. Tesser 2015-08-19 14:00:30 UTC
I am experiencing the same behavior with Nautilus 3.10.1 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
Comment 2 Andrew Byrd 2015-08-19 15:53:28 UTC
I recently reported this same bug to Ubuntu, and Rafael Tesser kindly pointed out this upstream bug report. My original detailed bug report can be found here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1460586

Below is a copy of the original bug report text:

I had two windows (Files == Nautilus) open side by side, both looking at directories on the same external USB hard drive (EXT4 filesystem). I was organizing files by click-selecting folders or drag-selecting several files in the right-hand window, then dragging them over to the left-hand window.

I would expect a move operation to result, as I am dragging between two directories on the same filesystem. However, sometimes (not every time, only occasionally) the drag and drop would result in copying files instead of moving them. A few times I caught this (I saw the + symbol on the target) and stopped the drag operation, then immediately repeated the drag-and-drop and got different results: a move instead of a copy.

By repeatedly performing the same drag operation (without completing it) I was able to reproduce the problem: occasionally the files would be copied instead of moved. This was not simply a glitch where the wrong cursor was displayed, there was actually a difference in behavior. I am certain of this because after one such operation both the original and the copy existed separately, and the copy operation took a significant amount of time with visual feedback about copy progress (unlike a move which is instantaneous).

Once when dragging 7 files, I saw that the cursor indicated an imminent move instead of copy, suddenly there were 9 dotted file outlines instead of 7. Repeating the operation resulted in a move, and there were only 7 dotted file outlines visible. That is to say, when an erroneous copy was about to happen, the number of files to be copied appeared to increase beyond the number I intended to move.

This problem was consistently accompanied by another possibly independent problem: the dotted file outlines did not disappear after the copy/move completed.

Another possibly irrelevant detail: in between the two Nautilus windows, and behind them in the stacking order, was a terminal window. My mouse was often passing over this terminal window as I dragged from the right hand Nautilus window to the left hand one. The mouse cursor that is displayed when dragging files across this window (to indicate the potential action of copying the file path as text into the terminal window) is similar to the one that indicates a move operation rather than a copy. I can imagine the mouse cursor just being accidentally stuck in the + state as it enters the target Nautilus window, but that doesn't explain the actual copy operation happening. I would not expect the cursor to represent any program state that could bleed between these two applications.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: nautilus 1:3.14.2-0ubuntu9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-18.18-generic 3.19.6
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Classic:GNOME
Date: Mon Jun 1 09:24:26 2015
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nautilus
GsettingsChanges: b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'default-column-order' b"['name', 'size', 'type', 'date_modified', 'date_accessed', 'owner', 'group', 'permissions', 'mime_type', 'where']"
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-05-02 (29 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (fresh install)
Comment 3 banned 2016-12-11 18:55:26 UTC
Almost two years and this critical issue hasn't even been reviewed (no comment from anybody involved in the development, no status change).

Is Nautilus even being maintained??
Comment 4 Ernestas Kulik 2016-12-11 18:58:25 UTC
(In reply to teo89765 from comment #3)
> Is Nautilus even being maintained??

Yes.
Comment 5 Carlos Soriano 2016-12-11 19:11:03 UTC
(In reply to teo89765 from comment #3)
> Almost two years and this critical issue hasn't even been reviewed (no
> comment from anybody involved in the development, no status change).
> 
> Is Nautilus even being maintained??

Please keep the discussion only on technical matters regarding this specific bug report not adding comments that provide nothing to the further development of this issue. 

Thanks!
Comment 6 António Fernandes 2018-01-06 13:36:12 UTC
Same issue reported here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/issues/7

Let's track it there instead.