Total Commander

When you drag and drop files to be copied to a tab, those files are copied to the source directory. This always happens when copying from a phone via a USB cable. This is what it looks like(video)

This is because your folder tab is locked with directory changes allowed - so even though the text on the tab says \:Downloads - you are not in that folder but in the source folder - so dragging a file to the \:Downloads tab actually copies it to the source folder - hence making a copy of it - I guess the Cyrillic text at the end of the names of the new files means "copy".

Solution: don't navigate to the source folder while you are in a locked tab. The !-sign in the start of the text on the tab indicates that your have navigated away from \:Downloads.

This will not happen if the source is on your harddisk - because TC will then say that you cannot copy a file to itself. But copying from the phone is done by Windows Explorer, and it apparently does not give that message.

It actually depends on the following option:
Menu Configuration - Options - Folder tabs: "Return to locked tab root directory on tab change".

If this option is checked, then dropping something on a folder tab which is locked with directory changes allowed will copy to the locked directory.
If the option is NOT checked, then the same drop will suggest to copy it to the current directory of that tab instead.

Anyway - it is a bad idea to drop a file from the currently shown folder to it's own tab.

And why has everyone suddenly forgotten that the user had two windows! The first one, for some reason - regardless of the action of the specified option - showed in text that copying to the "d:\D\Downloads" folder would happen now! IF you write that in reality, in the situation when the tab is locked, but there is a possibility to change the catalog - a different mechanism for selecting the target folder action works, then in this dialog window the text should have indicated exactly that other folder, namely - the folder of the phone's internal content!!!

Please correct the text of the copy path warning accordingly, so that it always clearly indicates where the copy will take place.

2petermad

hence making a copy of it - I guess the Cyrillic text at the end of the names of the new files means "copy".

you are right))

Yes, when I set "Return to locked tab root directory on tab change" in the settings, both windows (the first TC dialog and the second Explorer window) actually showed the place where copying was expected. Is dragging to a tab a bad idea - I use the TC capabilities that it provides and if the TC window had not shown the directory where I wanted to copy the files, of course, I would have interrupted the operation.

Is dragging to a tab a bad idea

No, just don't drag to the active tab over the same panel. In your video you can see that the tab marked: !*\:Downloads is a little bit brighter than the other tabs - that indicates that it is the active tab.

I use the TC capabilities that it provides

The problem here is that copying to and from a phone is handled by Windows, so TC don't have full control.

2petermad
It seems to me that you are only making the problem worse by transferring the problem description to Windows, describing the lack of control...
The _TotalCmd_ was unable to understand where the data ends up being "dropped" after drag-and-drop! And not the Explorer!
The final location is initially displayed incorrectly! And the action performed by the Explorer does not add anything to the situation.
The main bug is the first warning dialog about the copy process to the folder! Why do people refuse to even briefly discuss it?
This dialog should be adjusted to reflect the presence of the specified option and its current value, which is the state of the target
tab in the drag&drop operation: locked/unlocked/locked with options/etc....