One problem TNG site owners sometimes have during an upgrade is discovering that some images or other files are missing when the upgrade is complete. How did that happen?

The cause of this trouble is folders that get uploaded in “replace” mode (as opposed to “merge” mode). When a folder is uploaded in “replace” mode, the new folder totally replaces the old folder, so if there were any files not included in the new folder, those files will end up getting deleted from the website. In contrast, uploading in “merge” mode will allow the new files to overwrite older files with the same names, but it won’t delete anything.

So how do I know when my FTP program is in “replace” or “merge” mode? Unfortunately there’s no definitive answer, since all programs are different, so you might have to hunt around in your settings. In the popular Mac program “Transmit”, this can be found under Settings and then Transfers:

In that image, notice the “Uploading folders” option at the bottom. Here’s what it looks like with the options open:

There you can see that you have both a “Replace the existing folder” option and a “Merge the existing folder” option (among others). If you use a different program, you will likely have a similar option. Ask the company that makes the software if you’re not sure where to find it.

If you do end up replacing a folder when you didn’t mean to (and thus end up deleting some files), you can get them back by downloading the TNG full version zip and then uploading the folder again from there. That should restore all the default files from that folder for the current version. If you had custom images or files that were removed from the folder in question, you will need to upload those again as well.