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

powershell copy-item
user1161625 picture user1161625 · Feb 24, 2012 · Viewed 29.4k times · Source

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.

Answer

Daniel Richnak picture Daniel Richnak · Feb 24, 2012

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 $_ } }

Related questions

Progress during large file copy (Copy-Item & Write-Progress?)

Is there any way to copy a really large file (from one server to another) in PowerShell AND display its progress? There are solutions out there to use Write-Progress in conjunction with looping to copy many files and display progress. …

Read More
Powershell Copy-Item but only copy changed files

I am trying to recurse through a directory and copy it from A to B. That can be done with the following: Copy-Item C:\MyTest C:\MyTest2 –recurse I want to be able though to only copy new files (ones …

Read More
Need help on Powershell Copy-Item from network drives

I am trying to use Copy-Item from remote machine to another remote machine with the command: Copy-Item -Path "\\machine1\abc\123\log 1.zip" -Destination "\\machine2\\c$\Logs\" I am constantly getting Error "Cannot find Path "\\machine1\abc\123\log 1.zip" I can …

Read More