How to move all video files in all sub-directory to a parent directory?

Question

Best would be using a .bat file. But could also be Powershell if it's easier.

Now I'm using this:

for /r "M:\movies\new\" %%x in (*.mp4) do move "%%x" "M:\movies\new\"

but this works only for one extension (.mp4). How could I do this for multiple extensions?

Answer 1

Windows (and MacOS plus *ix) predate the numerous extensions created to hold video. The OS just doesn't know how to tell what is a video file and what isn't, so you will need to run that command line for each extension you wish to move.

Alternatively, move the *.txt files to another directory, move everything remaining, then move *.txt back, a la

for /r "M:\movies\new\" %%x in (*.txt) do move "%%x" "M:\placeholder\"
for /r "M:\movies\new\" %%x in (*.*) do move "%%x" "M:\movies\new\"
for /r "M:\placeholder\" %%x in (*.txt) do move "%%x" "M:\original directory\"