Powershell: Move all files from folders and subfolders into single folder

Question

Trying to index and search for a file within 8K files and 2K folders..

Is there a simple Powershell script that can move all files from folders and/or subfolders into one main folder?

don't need to delete the empty folders but would help.

Bring all child files into the parent with "one command": `Get-ChildItem -Path ./ -Recurse -File | Move-Item -Destination ./ ; Get-ChildItem -Path ./ -Recurse -Directory | Remove-Item;` — Vael Victus, Apr 12 '20 at 19:38

Don Cruickshank · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-06T19:51:41.000

79

The fourth example under help -Examples Move-Item[1] is close to what you need. To move all files under the SOURCE directory to the DEST directory you can do this:

Get-ChildItem -Path SOURCE -Recurse -File | Move-Item -Destination DEST

If you want to clear out the empty directories afterwards, you can use a similar command:

Get-ChildItem -Path SOURCE -Recurse -Directory | Remove-Item

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/move-item

edited May 06 '22 at 19:51

answered Jun 27 '16 at 21:34

Don Cruickshank

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What if I only know the `source` name but not the `dest`? `dest` for me would be the parent directory, which has an arbitrary name. – Vael Victus Dec 27 '18 at 22:31
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I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Surely you must know the destination directory otherwise the operation won't know where the put the files. – Don Cruickshank Dec 28 '18 at 12:12
What if I need to maintain the folder structure? this will copy the files but won't maintain the fulder structure – Juan Medina May 10 '21 at 18:53
@JuanMedina For that case you can just remove the `-Recurse` and `-File` flags. – Don Cruickshank May 10 '21 at 19:14
It actually fails when trying to move folders, it says Access Denied, even though you're admin – Juan Medina May 10 '21 at 19:16
@JuanMedina That sounds to me like a permissions issue or that the directories are still in use somehow. – Don Cruickshank May 10 '21 at 19:21
@DonCruickshank Check my answer, that one works without issue maintaining the folder structure – Juan Medina May 10 '21 at 19:23

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 05 '21 at 15:25

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Use .parent for the parent dir. It can be used recursively: .parent.parent

edited Mar 05 '21 at 15:25

Tomerikoo

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answered Mar 05 '21 at 15:00

Dikkie Dik

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 21 '23 at 16:38

The other answer led to an error for me because of duplicate files. My code solves this by appending a "_x" to duplicate files. Also the removal should only work, if there are no files left.

$files = Get-ChildItem -Path . -Recurse -File
foreach ($file in $files) {
  $dest = Join-Path . $file.Name
  if (Test-Path $dest) {
    $i = 1
    do {
      $newName = "$($file.BaseName)_$i$($file.Extension)"
      $newDest = Join-Path . $newName
      $i++
    } while (Test-Path $newDest)
    Move-Item -Path $file.FullName -Destination $newDest
  } else {
    Move-Item -Path $file.FullName -Destination $dest
  }
}

Get-ChildItem -Directory | Where-Object {(Get-ChildItem $_ -Recurse -File).count -eq 0} | ForEach-Object {Remove-Item $_ -Recurse}

Powershell: Move all files from folders and subfolders into single folder

3 Answers3

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