Detecting moved files using FileSystemWatcher

Question

I realise that FileSystemWatcher does not provide a Move event, instead it will generate a separate Delete and Create events for the same file. (The FilesystemWatcher is wa

Answer 1

According to the docs:

Common file system operations might raise more than one event. For example, when a file is moved from one directory to another, several OnChanged and some OnCreated and OnDeleted events might be raised. Moving a file is a complex operation that consists of multiple simple operations, therefore raising multiple events.

So if you're trying to be very careful about detecting moves, and having the same path is not good enough, you will have to use some sort of heuristic. For example, create a "fingerprint" using file name, size, last modified time, etc for files in the source folder. When you see any event that may signal a move, check the "fingerprint" against the new file.