Case Sensitivity

Paths in Files.com are case-insensitive and accent-insensitive. Case differences and accent marks are discarded when comparing filenames for equality.

Most business-to-business exchanges expect filenames to be treated case-insensitively, and in practice the two sides of a business-to-business file transfer often disagree on the case conventions for a filename. Many EDI systems use all capital letters in filenames; many others use all lowercase letters.

For example, Files.com will treat these file names as being identical to each other:

filename.txt

FILENAME.TXT

FiLeNaMe.TxT

FÎŁĘÑÂMÉ.TXT

Fïłèńämê.Txt

Uploading FILENAME.TXT to a folder that already contains filename.txt will either overwrite filename.txt with FILENAME.TXT or rename the new file to FILENAME_2.TXT, depending on how your Overwrite behavior setting is configured. This also applies to any Remote Syncs and Automations that move, copy, or sync files and folders with Files.com.

Files.com is also case-preserving. The stored path name uses the capitalization and accent marks of the original file or folder name, even though equality comparisons ignore them.

Files.com's behavior is similar to the default path behavior on Windows, which is still the dominant environment for most enterprises. It differs from popular object storage services such as Amazon S3, which typically use strict binary matching for object names.

The exact algorithm we use to compute path equivalency is documented in the page on Unicode Normalization.

Effects of Case Sensitivity When Using Remote Servers

When you use a Remote Server Mount, including an automatic mount triggered by browsing a Remote Server in the UI, Files.com follows the case sensitivity behavior of that Remote Server to the extent necessary to maintain compatibility with the remote system.

A Remote Mount to Microsoft Sharepoint, Box, or Dropbox behaves similarly to Files.com because those systems are case-insensitive. Systems like Microsoft Azure Blob, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and many remote SFTP servers are case-sensitive.

Files.com makes a best effort to harmonize inbound paths when working with case-sensitive remote systems, but full harmonization is not always possible. Always use correct casing in API calls and other integrations, such as Automation configurations, when working with these systems.

When moving or copying files from a case-sensitive system to a case-insensitive system (including Files.com itself), directories can end up combined or files overwritten.

Case Sensitivity By Remote Server Type

When connecting to Remote Servers using FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV, the case sensitivity and unicode sensitivity is determined by the remote server's operating system (OS).