rclone/docs/content/commands/rclone_move.md

title	description	versionIntroduced
rclone move	Move files from source to dest.	v1.19

rclone move

Move files from source to dest.

Synopsis

Moves the contents of the source directory to the destination directory. Rclone will error if the source and destination overlap and the remote does not support a server-side directory move operation.

To move single files, use the moveto command instead.

If no filters are in use and if possible this will server-side move source:path into dest:path. After this source:path will no longer exist.

Otherwise for each file in source:path selected by the filters (if any) this will move it into dest:path. If possible a server-side move will be used, otherwise it will copy it (server-side if possible) into dest:path then delete the original (if no errors on copy) in source:path.

If you want to delete empty source directories after move, use the --delete-empty-src-dirs flag.

See the --no-traverse option for controlling whether rclone lists the destination directory or not. Supplying this option when moving a small number of files into a large destination can speed transfers up greatly.

Rclone will sync the modification times of files and directories if the backend supports it. If metadata syncing is required then use the --metadata flag.

Note that the modification time and metadata for the root directory will not be synced. See https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/7652 for more info.

Important: Since this can cause data loss, test first with the --dry-run or the --interactive/-i flag.

Note: Use the -P/--progress flag to view real-time transfer statistics.

rclone move source:path dest:path [flags]

Options

      --create-empty-src-dirs   Create empty source dirs on destination after move
      --delete-empty-src-dirs   Delete empty source dirs after move
  -h, --help                    help for move

Options shared with other commands are described next. See the global flags page for global options not listed here.

Copy Options

Flags for anything which can copy a file

      --check-first                                 Do all the checks before starting transfers
  -c, --checksum                                    Check for changes with size & checksum (if available, or fallback to size only)
      --compare-dest stringArray                    Include additional server-side paths during comparison
      --copy-dest stringArray                       Implies --compare-dest but also copies files from paths into destination
      --cutoff-mode HARD|SOFT|CAUTIOUS              Mode to stop transfers when reaching the max transfer limit HARD|SOFT|CAUTIOUS (default HARD)
      --ignore-case-sync                            Ignore case when synchronizing
      --ignore-checksum                             Skip post copy check of checksums
      --ignore-existing                             Skip all files that exist on destination
      --ignore-size                                 Ignore size when skipping use modtime or checksum
  -I, --ignore-times                                Don't skip items that match size and time - transfer all unconditionally
      --immutable                                   Do not modify files, fail if existing files have been modified
      --inplace                                     Download directly to destination file instead of atomic download to temp/rename
      --max-backlog int                             Maximum number of objects in sync or check backlog (default 10000)
      --max-duration Duration                       Maximum duration rclone will transfer data for (default 0s)
      --max-transfer SizeSuffix                     Maximum size of data to transfer (default off)
  -M, --metadata                                    If set, preserve metadata when copying objects
      --modify-window Duration                      Max time diff to be considered the same (default 1ns)
      --multi-thread-chunk-size SizeSuffix          Chunk size for multi-thread downloads / uploads, if not set by filesystem (default 64Mi)
      --multi-thread-cutoff SizeSuffix              Use multi-thread downloads for files above this size (default 256Mi)
      --multi-thread-streams int                    Number of streams to use for multi-thread downloads (default 4)
      --multi-thread-write-buffer-size SizeSuffix   In memory buffer size for writing when in multi-thread mode (default 128Ki)
      --no-check-dest                               Don't check the destination, copy regardless
      --no-traverse                                 Don't traverse destination file system on copy
      --no-update-dir-modtime                       Don't update directory modification times
      --no-update-modtime                           Don't update destination modtime if files identical
      --order-by string                             Instructions on how to order the transfers, e.g. 'size,descending'
      --partial-suffix string                       Add partial-suffix to temporary file name when --inplace is not used (default ".partial")
      --refresh-times                               Refresh the modtime of remote files
      --server-side-across-configs                  Allow server-side operations (e.g. copy) to work across different configs
      --size-only                                   Skip based on size only, not modtime or checksum
      --streaming-upload-cutoff SizeSuffix          Cutoff for switching to chunked upload if file size is unknown, upload starts after reaching cutoff or when file ends (default 100Ki)
  -u, --update                                      Skip files that are newer on the destination

Important Options

Important flags useful for most commands

  -n, --dry-run         Do a trial run with no permanent changes
  -i, --interactive     Enable interactive mode
  -v, --verbose count   Print lots more stuff (repeat for more)

Filter Options

Flags for filtering directory listings

      --delete-excluded                     Delete files on dest excluded from sync
      --exclude stringArray                 Exclude files matching pattern
      --exclude-from stringArray            Read file exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --exclude-if-present stringArray      Exclude directories if filename is present
      --files-from stringArray              Read list of source-file names from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --files-from-raw stringArray          Read list of source-file names from file without any processing of lines (use - to read from stdin)
  -f, --filter stringArray                  Add a file filtering rule
      --filter-from stringArray             Read file filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --ignore-case                         Ignore case in filters (case insensitive)
      --include stringArray                 Include files matching pattern
      --include-from stringArray            Read file include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --max-age Duration                    Only transfer files younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --max-depth int                       If set limits the recursion depth to this (default -1)
      --max-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files smaller than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
      --metadata-exclude stringArray        Exclude metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-exclude-from stringArray   Read metadata exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-filter stringArray         Add a metadata filtering rule
      --metadata-filter-from stringArray    Read metadata filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-include stringArray        Include metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-include-from stringArray   Read metadata include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --min-age Duration                    Only transfer files older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --min-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files bigger than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)

Listing Options

Flags for listing directories

      --default-time Time   Time to show if modtime is unknown for files and directories (default 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z)
      --fast-list           Use recursive list if available; uses more memory but fewer transactions

See Also

• rclone - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.