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.

Answer 1

The fourth example under help -Examples Move-Item 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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

I know this post is a bit old, but I came across a simmilar issue, but this doesn't cover the case when I need to maintain all fsubolder structure, so this is my solution maintaining the subfolder structure

$sourcePath = "C:\FolderLocation"
$destPath = "C:\NewFolderLocation"
Write-Host "Moving all files in '$($sourcePath)' to '$($destPath)'"
$fileList = @(Get-ChildItem -Path "$($sourcePath)" -File -Recurse)
$directoryList = @(Get-ChildItem -Path "$($sourcePath)" -Directory -Recurse)
ForEach($directory in $directoryList){
    $directories = New-Item ($directory.FullName).Replace("$($sourcePath)",$destPath) -ItemType Directory -ea SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
}
Write-Host "Creating Directories"
ForEach($file in $fileList){
    try {
        Move-Item -Path $file.FullName -Destination ((Split-Path $file.FullName).Replace("$($sourcePath)",$destPath)) -Force -ErrorAction Stop
    }
    catch{
        Write-Warning "Unable to move '$($file.FullName)' to '$(((Split-Path $file.FullName).Replace("$($sourcePath)",$destPath)))': $($_)"
        return
    }
}
Write-Host "Deleting folder '$($sourcePath)'"
Remove-Item -Path "$($sourcePath)" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Stop