A method begins by a processing module obtaining a directory file and determining a new snapshot identifier (ID) for the directory file. The method continues with the processing module identifying a version of a filename to associate with the new snapshot ID and updating the directory file by associating the snapshot ID to the version of the filename to produce an updated directory file. The method continues with the processing module dispersed storage error encoding the updated directory file to produce a set of encoded updated directory file slices and sending the set of encoded updated directory file slices to a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory for storage.