How do I queue multiple files for copying on a Mac?

Question

When I copy multiple files on a Mac, the system tries to copy them all at the same time. The problem is two-fold.

First of all, when you select multiple files and copy them, they all go into one process with an "all or nothing" approach not unlike ACID in databases. Often this is not desireable.

Further, when you add other copy-processes, the system tries to copy everything at the same time.

For example, I decide to copy a large file A, then later I decide to copy a large file B as well. This results in two parallel copy operations, regardless if one of the "large files" also is a selection of many files.

I do not like this for several reasons:

• When several copy processes run at once, it seems to bogs down other processes.
• Also, when several files are copied at the same time, the copy process itself seems to go much slower.
• And lastly, if the process is aborted, none of the files reach its destination.
• When adding a file to the queue, it will also start copying at once, and bogging down the process even further.
• This is a real problem when copying to other machines or drives on the (local) net.

Result: The file A, which I wanted to transfer and use first, takes much longer to arrive than needed, and when copying from a central HD on the LAN, I cannot use the first file until all the other files also have arrived.

Thus... How do I queue multiple files for copying on a Mac? To clarify: Regardless of many files are chosen, or they are added one by one, I want them all put into a queue that only copies one file at a time, until the queue is done.

Answers in Bash and especially Perl are also welcome!

Answer 1

UltraCopier

UltraCopier is a free and cross-platform copy utility that is currently in development, so it's not that neat and polished yet. Once you install it, it sits in your menu bar.

It manages a copy list that allows you to queue copy or move jobs, which are then sequentially processed. You can also define the copy process priority as well as the block size of the transfer.

With the new version you can group with similar source and/or destination, or just always or never.

Answer 2

Here is a bash solution:

cp file1 dest1; cp file2 dest2

Repeat this for how ever many files you want to copy. Just keep adding semicolons and cp commands.

You could also do

cp file1 dest1 && cp file2 dest2

In this example, the file will only be copied if the one before it copied successfully.

For a folder, you can do something like this:

for x in folder/*; do echo "Copying $x"; cp "$x" destdir; done

Answer 3

The Finder alternative Path Finder includes a copy queue functionality since version 6.

File Transfer Queue

Access current file operations from either a toolbar item or a separate unified window.

Answer 4

Path Finder 6 looks easier to navigate than ultracopier and definitely creates a clear cue, plus it has way more options. There's also a 30 day trial for it.

But I'm using this professionally so I say totally worth it.

File Operations in Path Finder 6 (YouTube video)

Answer 5

In addition to some of the other copy managers in this thread, you might want to look at ForkLift: http://www.binarynights.com/forklift/

Pros:

• Turn queuing on / off,
• FTP + SFTP + Amazon S3 + WEBDav,
• Bunch of handy sync tools geared towards developers.

Cons:

• Paid (though at the time of writing there is a special on the App Store but...),
• App Store version is missing features (oh sandbox).

Answer 6

I had the same issue and found an app on the app store called 'CopyQueue'.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/copyqueue/id711074010?mt=12

It seems to work great. Just drag the folder(s) or file(s) you want to copy to the queue and it will start copying through the queue. You can pause, reorder queue priority, and one of my favourite features is click verify for it to confirm the copy was successful.

Answer 7

There's also Mini Copier - UI looks pretty similar to UltraCopier.

Answer 8

Plan what you want to move

• Create aliases of the folders in the source
• Move the Aliases to the target folder

Make a script that finds the aliases and replace them with the origin (move)

Launch the script and go to sleep.