Sorry about this as I’m sure it’s been asked a thousand times before…just can’t find it…
After importing any selected Folders and Files into an EagleFiler Library from Finder is it accepted practice to delete the original Folders and Files from there original Finder location and then only rely on EagleFiler to preserve the Folder and File structural integrity ?
If this is the case, is there any circumstances in which one might loose some files in the future.
It’s just that it seems a little drastic to delete the originals…!!
Yes. Files in the EagleFiler library folder are subject to all the same dangers as those outside of it: human error, hardware faults, OS and file system bugs, rogue processes, bit rot, etc. But it’s safer to have the files in EagleFiler because it will be able to tell you if anything went wrong, and if your backup restored correctly. Because of this, and because of the inherent challenges in maintaining two copies of everything, it makes sense to put the files in EagleFiler and then back up your EagleFiler library (to another drive or to a cloud server), rather than keep two copies (EagleFiler and non) on the same drive.
As a long-time user (5 years?), keeping a single copy is definitely the way to go. I think about it this way: all the files are still there, in their native formats. EF “just” adds a lot of metadata, in addition to the original files. For example, Spotlight searches will still find content in the EF files, just as before.
BTW, I gave the EF data home folder a special and conspicuous icon. That way, when a spotlight search or other Finder operation pulls up a file in EF, I immediately know EF is where it is stored. And if I forgot to erase the original, I can quickly see which one is in EF, and delete the other one. See picture.
