Field note · Files
An inventory is the cheapest rollback evidence you can create before reorganising files
Published: September 9, 2026 · Maintained by: Jisung Kim · AI assistance and release-check practices are disclosed in the editorial policy. This note documents WEBBE-B tool behavior, design choices and verification practice.
FolderList does not change files. It exports a record of what the browser can see: names, relative paths, sizes and dates. That sounds less exciting than a cleanup button, yet it solves a real operational problem—after a large reorganisation, people often remember that something moved but not what the original structure looked like.
An inventory is evidence, not a backup
A CSV or text listing cannot restore deleted file contents. It can, however, answer questions such as “was this file present?”, “which folder was it under?” and “what was its size at the time of the scan?” That information can make recovery from a real backup much easier.
Relative paths preserve structure
A filename alone is often ambiguous. Two folders can each contain notes.txt. Recording the relative path distinguishes them and makes the directory hierarchy reconstructable in a way a flat filename list cannot.
Size helps detect unexpected changes
If a file appears after a migration with the same name but a very different byte size, that is a useful warning. Size does not prove content equality, but it is a cheap consistency signal. Exact identity still belongs to a full content comparison or hash.
Dates are useful but not authoritative
Modification times can change during copying, extraction, synchronization or editing. They should be recorded because they help with sorting and investigation, but they are not immutable creation records.
Export before the destructive step
The inventory is most useful when created before renaming, moving or deleting. Store the report outside the directory being changed. If the report is saved inside the target folder and the whole folder is later removed or overwritten, the safety evidence disappears with it.
A photo archive example
Before consolidating three yearly photo folders, export each inventory. After the move, compare file counts and total logical bytes, then run exact duplicate analysis where appropriate. If a family later asks about a missing event folder, the old inventory can show whether it existed and where it was stored.
What a browser inventory cannot see
The user must explicitly select files or a folder. The browser does not silently enumerate protected areas, alternate data streams, file-system permissions or every form of extended attribute. The report describes the selected browser-visible files, not the entire state of a disk.
Why text formats matter
CSV, JSON or plain text can be opened without the original web app. A safety record should not require the exact tool that created it years later. Human-readable exports also make it easier to diff two scans with ordinary software.
A practical before/after check
- Export the original inventory.
- Perform the planned reorganisation.
- Export a second inventory.
- Compare counts, paths and totals.
- Investigate unexpected differences before deleting backups.
The best file cleanup workflows create evidence before they create change. An inventory is cheap enough that there is little reason to skip it when the directory matters.
Make inventories diff-friendly
A useful inventory should sort paths consistently and use one explicit encoding, preferably UTF-8, so Korean filenames, accented characters and symbols survive export. When CSV is used, fields containing commas or quotes must be escaped correctly; otherwise a spreadsheet can shift columns and make a clean inventory look corrupted. For automated comparison, JSON is often easier because file name, relative path, byte size and timestamp remain separate typed fields.
Compare changes in layers
After a reorganisation, start with total file count and total logical bytes. If those differ unexpectedly, compare relative paths next. Only then move to hashes for files whose identity matters. This layered diff is faster than hashing everything by default and produces a clearer explanation of what changed: a rename changes the path but not bytes, a conversion changes bytes and usually size, and a deletion removes the record entirely. Keep the pre-change inventory alongside a backup until those differences are understood.
Name the snapshot itself
Include the scan date and a short source label in the exported filename, such as photos-archive-before-2026-09-09.json. A clear snapshot name prevents the safety record from being mistaken for a current inventory months later and makes paired before/after comparisons easier to audit.