PowerShell - suppress Copy-Item 'Folder already exists' error

Question

When I run a recursive Copy-Item from a folder that has sub folders to a new folder that contains the same sub folders as the original, it throws an error when the subfolders already exist.

How can I suppress this because it is a false negative and can make true failures harder to see?

Example:

Copy-Item "C:\realFolder\*" "C:\realFolder_new" -recurse

Copy-Item : Item with specified name C:\realFolder_new\subFolder already exists.

Does adding -Force solve the problem? – Lee Grissom Apr 05 '13 at 20:49 — Lee Grissom, Apr 05 '13 at 20:49

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 24 '18 at 19:32

27

You could try capturing any errors that happen, and then decide whether you care about it or not:

Copy-Item "C:\realFolder\*" "C:\realFolder_new" -recurse -ErrorVariable capturedErrors -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$capturedErrors | foreach-object { if ($_ -notmatch "already exists") { write-error $_ } }

edited Aug 24 '18 at 19:32

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 24 '12 at 22:22

Daniel Richnak

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Thank you, this works. Finally getting a chance to implement it and test today :) – user1161625 Mar 09 '12 at 18:20

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 08 '19 at 01:07

26

If you add -Force to your command it will overwrite the existing files and you won't see the error.

-Recurse will replace all items within each folder and all subfolders.

Copy-Item "C:\realFolder\*" "C:\realFolder_new" -Recurse -Force

edited Jun 08 '19 at 01:07

L. F.

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answered Jun 08 '16 at 21:49

leemicw

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Overwrite the existing folders? Or only overwrite *files* in the existing folders? – Peter Mortensen Aug 24 '18 at 19:33
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I had to do both - `-Recurse -Force`- this one got me working. – adprocas Jun 07 '19 at 17:22

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 24 '12 at 17:58

12

You can set the error handling behavior to ignore using:

Copy-Item "C:\realFolder\*" "C:\realFolder_new" -recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

However this will also suppress errors you did want to know about!

answered Feb 24 '12 at 17:58

Andy Arismendi

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Yeah... that only sorta helps :) Is the already exists thing a bug in the Copy-Item cmdlet? Seems like a waste of output- if it's already there and I was about to create it then who cares.. at least give me a -slientOnExistingDirs or -verbose switch, right? Thanks for your help though.. I'll think about that option. – user1161625 Feb 24 '12 at 22:21

PowerShell - suppress Copy-Item 'Folder already exists' error

3 Answers3