I have about 60TB of media on my Plex server. This server does a daily backup (just changes) to a remote server with LuckyBackup (rsync). On any given day, it only copies a few gigs so no big deal.

My Plex database is corrupt so I need to re-do it. Without boring you with the details, I need to use the file manager (Nemo) and move the files to a temporary spot on the same drive and then move them right back. I don't want LuckyBackup to see 60TB of data as 'new' and kick off a full backup so will I be OK?

I did some Googling and I think so long as I keep the files on the same drive (file system), mtime shouldn't be updated. I also did a small test with a 400 meg file and when I moved it out of its' folder and back in and kicked off LuckyBackup again, it DID display that file (because it noticed SOMETHING different about it) but it looks like it just did a quick file size/time check and decided it was the same file and didn't copy it.

I think I'll be good to go but has anyone done anything like this and can give me a confidence boost?

When you move a file, the file doesn't change but the old and new parent directories do. I think rsync would notice that.

Agree with rsync, try: rsync -avc source/ destination/
-a = archive
-v = verbose
-c - checksum to ensure content level accuracy (I believe this will slow down the copy)

-av = will be one of the optimal ways to go

yes, rsync can compare the local and remote files and skip them if they are identical. If you not specified something else (like time based or forced sync or ??)

Thanks for all the replies!

I'm happy to announce that adjusting the dates did NOT trigger a rsync copy. I kept the files on the same drive and just moved them to a new directory and right back and all was well.