How to make rsync preserve timestamps of unchanged files

rsync av --update /loc1 /loc2

so only files that are NEWER will be synced from loc1 to loc2. Logic dictates that any files that are NEWER on loc2 will be untouched. Therefore all the outdated files on loc2 will be up-to-date thanks to loc1

rsync av --update /loc2 /loc1

Now we know that all the files that loc1 had that were newer were copied to loc2. Any files that were older on loc1 (that had newer ones on loc2) remained unchanged. The second rsync command now will update loc1 with files newer on loc2

Et Voila! both locations are synchronised in this example.

From your local machine:

rsync -chavzP --stats user@remote.host:/path/to/copy /path/to/local/storage

From your local machine with a non standard ssh port:

rsync -chavzP -e "ssh -p $portNumber" user@remote.host:/path/to/copy /local/path

Or from the remote host, assuming you really want to work this way and your local machine is listening on SSH:

rsync -chavzP --stats /path/to/copy user@host.remoted.from:/path/to/local/storage

See man rsync for an explanation of my usual switches.