Powershell Cannot create a file when that file already exists when using Move-Item

user_16950517 0
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I'm trying to move png images in subfolders to a subfolder in the folder they are in.

Main folder is called "stuff", images are in variously named subfolders in the "stuff" main folder, and each of these subfolders have a folder name "Oneshot" in them, I'm trying to move these images that are in M:/Stuff/FolderExample/ to M:/Stuff/FolderExample/Oneshot/. Current code I am using

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users\a\Desktop\stuff\*.png -Recurse | Move-Item -Destination "$($_.FullName)\Oneshot\"

How can I make this work? I'm just trying to learn powershell so I can automate this process as I otherwise would need to repeat the process manually for thousands of times

powershell
2 Answers

Use a scriptblock ({...}) as the argument to -Destination - this will allow you to access the current pipeline item as $_ during parameter binding:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users\a\Desktop\stuff\*.png -Recurse |Where-Object Directory -notlike *\OneShot | Move-Item -Destination {"$($_.Directory.FullName)\Oneshot\"}

The Where-Object command in the middle of the pipeline will ensure we don't attempt to move pictures already in one of the OneShot folders.

user_7126490

Powershell is not the best idea to move files. The main reason is that you run into problems in case the path becomes too long >256 characters. I would use robocopy for such tasks. It is part of every current windows version.

robocopy  M:/Stuff/FolderExample/  M:/Stuff/FolderExample/Oneshot/ /MIR

Please keep in mind that this code will also delete everything that is in M:/Stuff/FolderExample/Oneshot/ and not in M:/Stuff/FolderExample/. So use /MIR with caution.

You could still invoke robocopy in an ps1 file and wrap other powershell code around it e.g. for variables.

user_110339510
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