How to move all files with specific extension from

Question

Folder c:\folder1 contains subfolder1, subfolder2, etc..

These subdirectories hold .pdf and .db files.

How can all the .pdf files be moved to c:\folder1 using the Windows command interpreter?

Answer 1

I know this is superlate, but just in case it helps anyone.

Used this to search all sub-folders for a .MKV file and move them to the current directory the batch file resides in.

FOR /D /r %%F in ("*") DO (
    pushd %CD%
    cd %%F
        FOR %%X in (*.mkv) DO (
            move "%%X" "%CD%"
        )
    popd
)

Answer 2

MOVE "C:\FOLDER 1\PDF FILES\*.pdf" "C:\FOLDER 1"
MOVE "C:\FOLDER 1\DB FILES\*.db" "C:\FOLDER 1"

After the move command, you have the source folder followed by the destination where the files will be moved to. The * in front of each file extension is a wildcard function that will select all of the specified filetype existing within that directory.

Also, if you can create a .bat file with these commands if you want to. To do this, paste your commands into notepad and save it as .bat instead of .txt

Then, you can double-click the file and it will execute the commands within the file each time you do. This is useful if you have any repetitive tasks that require this.

Answer 3

Just taking a wild stab in the dark here, but if I remember correctly DOS can handle globs and the equivalent of mv is MOVE, so:

MOVE C:\FOLDER1\*\*.PDF C:\FOLDER1\

Answer 4

@echo on

for /r "F:\All_drawings\newdrg\" %%x in (*.tiff) do move "%%x" "F:\Alldrawings"

pause

{moves all files from the newdrg folder and its "sub-folders" to the target folder Alldrawings, this command is for batch file operation for command line use single "%" in both the places}.

Answer 5

I don't think there's a wildcard that will work on subfolders, so you want to use a loop to go through each subfolder and move *.pdf;

FOR /R [your root folder path] %%G IN (*.pdf) DO move %%G [new path]

The command after DO is inherently in its own quotes. If you anticipate spaces in your source or destination, use double quotes to encapsulate them, e.g.:

FOR /R "source folder with spaces" %%G IN (*.pdf) DO move "%%G" "dest path with spaces"

NOTE the quotes around %%G, these are required for the move command to resolve the path.

**EDIT: In response to the accepted answer, From command prompts on Windows XP and Windows 7, respectively:

This shows that a wildcard does not work in paths, only for files in a single directory (e.g. C:\folder*.files). The command prompt does not operate recursively when it encounters a wildcard.

Answer 6

There is another way to do this in Windows Explorer (GUI, not command prompt):

• Navigate to the top-level directory
• In the search box in the top-right, type *.pdf and hit search
• Select all the files and drag them to the top-level folder
• Respond to any prompts about overwriting files