How do I move all subfolders into the main folder for a lot of main folders?

Question

I have 1800 main folders, around 1000 or so of those have a subfolder in them with the same name (always the same name).

These subfolders have the files which are not picked up by the program I use because it is not in the main folder. I have looked into changing the directory for the program but alas to no avail.

So I need to move all those subfolders into the main folder, any idea how I can do this?

For example:

folder1 with all the files

folder2 with a subfolder also called folder2 which has all the files

folder3 with all the files

+1797

Etc.

Answer 1

You can create a batch script that does the job for you. You copy the code below, put it in notepad. Save the file with the name you want but with a *.bat extension. Then you drag the main folder (not the main sub-folders) to the batch file.

Make a test on some copy first to see if the result is as expected...

@echo off

IF /i exist "%~1" (set "MainFolder=%~1") else (exit)

pushd "%MainFolder%"
For /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /ad /b 2^>nul') do Call :MSubfolders "%%~a"

exit

:MSubfolders
set "MSubfolder=%~1"
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /ad /b /s "%MSubfolder%\*" ^|sort /r 2^> nul') do (
                                                                                 for /f "delims=" %%b in ('dir /b /a-d "%%a\*" 2^>nul') do IF /i not exist "%MSubfolder%\%%b" (move "%%a\%%b" "%MSubfolder%\") else (call :Rename "%%a" "%%b")
                                                                                 rd "%%a\"
                                                                                )
goto :EOF

:Rename
for /l %%a in (1,1,100) do (
                            if /i not exist "%MSubfolder%\%~n2(%%a)%~x2" move "%~1\%~2" "%MSubfolder%\%~n2(%%a)%~x2"
                            goto :EOF
                           )
goto :EOF

Answer 2

Untested, but this PowerShell should be close.

Assunig:

• Any sub-folder of a namin folder should have its files moved to the main folder and then the subfolder deleted.
• Command is run from the folder containing the main folders (path easily added)

Verbose:

Get-ChildItem -Directory | Where-Object { ( $SubFolder = Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Directory ) } -PipelineVariable MainFolder | ForEach-Object{
    # Move files to MainFolder
    Get-ChildItem $SubFolder -File | Move-Item -Destination $MainFolder.FullName -WhatIf
    # Delete empty SubFolder
    Remove-Item $SubFolder -WhatIf
}

Aliased:

gci -ad | ? { ( $SubFolder = gci $_.FullName -ad ) } -pv MainFolder | %{
    gci $SubFolder -af | move -Destination $MainFolder.FullName -WhatIf
    del $SubFolder -WhatIf
}

The -WhatIf parameter allows you to test the command without actual moving/deletion. Remove after testing to perform the actions.