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powershellcopy-item

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

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.
Solution

  • 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 $_ } }