Patent ID: 8533165

Claim:
A method for resolving conflicts via metadata examination, the method comprising: determining, by a computing device, whether a first copy of a file and a second copy of the file are different from each other, the first copy of the file and the second copy of the file each including respective content and respective metadata; determining, by the computing device, when the first copy of the file is determined to be different from the second copy of the file, whether all core metadata fields of the first copy of the file match corresponding core metadata fields of the second copy of the file; performing, by the computing device when all of the core metadata fields of the first copy of the file are determined to match the corresponding core metadata fields of the second copy of the file: categorizing, by the computing device, a nature of differences of one or more metadata fields of the first copy of the file with respect to one or more corresponding metadata fields of the second copy of file, and resolving, by the computing device, a conflict of the one or more metadata fields of the first copy of the file with respect to the one or more corresponding metadata fields of the second copy of the file based on the categorized nature of the differences.