DirEqual 7.7.2 Mac

DirEqual runs on any Mac that has macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer, with native support for both Intel and Apple Silicon machines.

Map the differences first

An experienced user seldom starts by hitting sync. The first step is loading two folders into the tabbed window. DirEqual remembers previous pairs, so reloading a project you checked yesterday takes a single click. The side-by-side tree view marks every mismatch with color and an icon: blue for newer files, red for orphans, a checkmark where things match. You can collapse whole branches to scan a deep folder structure quickly.

Filter with filename templates

Before syncing, narrow the view. The app lets you enter a filename template to compare only what you care about — isolating .pdf proofs from a folder full of raw design files, for instance. The tree updates instantly, and the color markers work on the filtered set, so nothing slips past.

Sync by hand, not by guess

Synchronization here is manual. You select exactly which files and folders move, and in which direction, before the app copies anything. That control matters when you are merging two slightly different project archives and need to keep one version as the master. Every action stays visible in the tree until you clear it.

What people ask before they install

The most frequent question is whether DirEqual can run side-by-side with Finder. It can, and it does not replace Finder or alter how macOS handles files. It reads folders you point it at, compares their contents, and waits for your instructions. Nothing moves on its own.

Another common concern is safety around deep folder trees. Users testing the direqual mac full version often load a home directory with tens of thousands of items. The tree stays responsive because DirEqual does not preload every file into memory at once — it expands branches on demand. A Music folder with 40,000 tracks opens in roughly the same time as a folder with forty.

People also ask whether content comparison means the app reads entire files. It does, when you ask for it. The default comparison uses size and modification date. A single click on a file pair opens a byte-level check, and the result appears as a simple match-or-differ flag in the tree. There is no hex viewer built in, and the app does not keep a cache of file contents after the window closes.

Questions about network volumes surface regularly. DirEqual compares folders on locally mounted drives — that includes external USB disks and NAS shares mounted via SMB in Finder. It does not connect to remote servers on its own. If the Mac sees the volume, DirEqual sees it.

Where DirEqual fits in a Mac workflow

DirEqual sits between Finder and a backup tool. Finder shows you one folder at a time. DirEqual shows two, with differences lit up. After cleaning up with DirEqual, many users feed the result into Time Machine or a cloud sync service, knowing the source folders are already tidy.

It also pairs well with version control for non-technical assets. A designer keeping local copies of client assets can compare a project folder against an archive on an external drive, pass only the changed .afphoto or .sketch files across, and leave the rest untouched. Git handles code; DirEqual handles the surrounding working files without a command line.

macOS tags and Spotlight comments stay intact. The app copies or deletes items at the file system level, so metadata attached by Finder travels with the file. That makes it straightforward to mark reviewed files with a color tag in Finder, run a comparison, and sync only tagged items — using the tag as a visible filter outside the app.

Because the window is tabbed, you can keep three or four frequent folder pairs loaded and switch between them without reopening paths. That suits anyone who maintains parallel folder structures — a local working copy and a network backup, or a raw-photo library and a processed-exports tree — and checks them several times a day.

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel 64-bit processor