I can't move files through C++ (both MoveFile, MoveFileEx, filesystem::rename)

Question

I was trying to write a simple program to move files from directory A to directory B, in the end the file moving part keeping giving ACCESS DENIED errors and what so. Here is the code

const char* src = "C:\\Users\\user1\\testfolder\\source\\test.txt";
const char* dest = "C:\\Users\\user1\\testfolder\\destination";


try {
    std::filesystem::rename(src, dest);
} catch (std::filesystem::filesystem_error& e) {
    std::cout << e.what() << '\n';
}
return 0;

This prints the error ACCESS DENIED

VS2022 is running as administrator. C++ Version is C++ 17. The file can be moved through cmd with no problem.

MoveFile exits with error 183 MoveFileEx(src,dest,MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING) exits with error 5 (ACCESS DENIED)

I tried restarting VS, running as admin, and tried other file moving solutions, none seem to work.

Answer 1

There is at least one problem with your dest path value, possibly two problems.

1. If the source in a call to std::filesystem::rename is a non-directory file (as yours is), then the destination must also be a non-directory file.

2. Even if the new file does not (yet) exist, the directory into which you are placing it must exist (third second-level bullet in the page linked below).

So, first make sure that your C:\\Users\\user1\\testfolder\\destination folder exists, then add the destination filename to the specified target path, as below:

const char* dest = "C:\\Users\\user1\\testfolder\\destination\\test.txt";

Further reference: cppreference