This tutorial explains how to move files or directories to another location on a Windows system.
Move files to another directory
move filename destinationFolder
Example: to move file ‘data.docx’ to the folder ‘d:\backup\folder’
move data.docx d:\backup\folder\
You can also rename the file while moving it to the new location
move data.docx d:\backup\folder\newData.docx
We can’t move multiple files with single command. i.e the below command would not work.
move file1 file2 D:\folder1\folder2
This would give the error The syntax of the command is incorrect.
However we can use wildcards to move files in bulk. For example, if you want to move all text files from current folder to a new location you can use the below command.
move *.txt destinationDirectory
To move all files starting with letter ‘A’, you can use below command.
move A* destinationDirectory
Move directories
Syntax:
move directory newDirectoryPath
Example: To move the directory ‘data’ to ‘D:\data\folder1\’
move data D:\data\folder1
1. Can we move multiple directories using wild cards like the way we do it with files?
No, wild cards does not work for directories. You get the below error
C:\>move tmp* Documents\folder1\ The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
2. How to specify the directories/files which have white spaces in the names?
You need to enclose the name of the file/directory in double quotes.
Example: move "file with spaces" "D:\directory with spaces"
Errors
If you do not have write privileges on source file/directory or on the destination folder, you would get error as below.
C:\Users\user1>move mydata.pdf c:\users\user2
Access is denied.
0 file(s) moved.
Could some one point out why windows command line could not execute
move file1 file2 destinationDirectory ?
Because with the syntax the command is expecting, you told it to move file1 to file2 (which already isn’t going to work) and then gave it an argument of destination Directory, which it then has no idea what to do with, cause it isn’t a valid argument, in addition to the command you issues failing.
very helpful, I am missing one piece, I am trying to move all files from a “Camera Uploads” folder (dropbox) to another folder… not sure how to do a move involving all files inside a directory with a space… any ideas… “C:\Dropbox\Camera Uploads\*.*” doesn’t work… thanks!
i think this would do the trick
“C:\Dropbox\Camera Uploads\*”
hi,
can anyone suggest, how can I achieve below, via DOS command ?
I want to move all files and folders from source folder to destination folder.
e.g. C:\source\file1.txt
C:\source\file1.txt
C:\source\subsource\file1.txt
I want to move everything form C:\source form C:\destination ( like CUT from C:\source and PASTE into C:\Destination)
Thanks in advance.
If you want to copy all files from C :\ to destination you can use
move c:\> Source folder\*.* c:\destination folder
-move Just files not folders
if you to copy folder and files you can use XCOPY Command c:\xcopy *.* C:\ Destination folder
move -y “C:\source\file1.txt ” “C:\source\subsource\file1.txt”
pause
Can I use wildcard * to recognize the source and subsource directory in command line?
is there any window service which did the same work as you mentioned above. i.e transferring a file from one folder to another specified folder by a specific time interval in the background automatically. if you have some link regarding this please do share
There’s a pretty good wirte up on task scheduling on the windows club, check it out: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-schedule-batch-file-run-automatically-windows-7
Hello ALl,
Please suggest me how to move folders like 0123-03-000000001 to “Done” folder through batch file.
can I use batch file to execute command?
Thank you
wow! lots of examples for windows move command. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Guys,
Id like to create a script to move files of a size between let say 200 – 500MB from a specific location to another location.
Anyone know how to do this ? :)
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21379562/move-files-over-a-certain-size-to-specific-directory-and-exclude-specifc-sub-di
Hey I would like to know how to move a folder or move files to a folder while naming the folder to Program Files and on the Desktop
I have a batch scrip that creates a sql dump then copies it to another server. I’m looking to move it so it is deleted from the directory originally created in. I tried the MOVE command but it doesn’t do anything. The script that works with just copying it is below anyone have any thoughts on how to modify this?
@ECHO OFF
set TIMESTAMP=%DATE:~10,4%%DATE:~4,2%%DATE:~7,2%
REM Export all databases into file C:\DB Backups\backup\docuware.[year][month][day].sql
“C:\Program Files (x86)\DocuWare\Internal Database V2\bin\mysqldump.exe” –all-databases –result-file=”C:\DB Backups\docuware.%TIMESTAMP%.sql” –user=admin –password=Toshiba1
REM Change working directory to the location of the DB dump file.
C:
CD \DB Backups
COPY “C:\DB Backups\” “E:\DW_PROD\Database Backups\Toshiba Tamarac Internal”
HI, Please provide how to move directory in to anoterh locatp
Hi, could you please help! I keep getting a The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect error.
MOVE /-y “\\XYZ-nas\active matters\ABC\Morning\D1\processed\PDF\008\Morning_0086126__*.pdf” “\\XYZ-nas\active matters\ABC\Morning\D1\processed\Loose\07. Rathburnadette Email\top\Inbox\FW: BGD (unknown)\”
Hi,
Can anyone help me to move the files from multiple folders to multiple folders?
Example: I have folders like folder1 and in folder1 I have file1 and file and folder2 in folder2 I have file 3 and file and the destination folders are folder 3 and folder4.
we need to move the folder1 files to folder3 and folder2 files to folder4 at a time not one by one.
i have about 200,000 files that i want to write a program to move them (by key word in file name ) to different folders
move all files with any of these words in the file name (shtf,prepper,prepping,survival,bushcraft) to folder shtf
thats an example…. sas, small basic, dos prompt any hints? tks
Any way to perform a bulk move of files based on a string found inside the file? e.g. this does not work for me
move findstr “StringToFind” *.xml D:\PROD\ExceptionFolder
Hi
I want to move files from one directory to another only the latest file names are like this filename20190904.csv. I want to move these from one folder to other and replace the files with latest. And also want to exclude one file from source folder. any help would be appreciated
Including how to move across a network drive would be useful