File.Move Does Not Work - File Already Exists

What you need is:

if (!File.Exists(@"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt")) {
    File.Move(@"c:\test\SomeFile.txt", @"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt");
}

or

if (File.Exists(@"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt")) {
    File.Delete(@"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt");
}
File.Move(@"c:\test\SomeFile.txt", @"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt");

This will either:

  • If the file doesn't exist at the destination location, successfully move the file, or;
  • If the file does exist at the destination location, delete it, then move the file.

Edit: I should clarify my answer, even though it's the most upvoted! The second parameter of File.Move should be the destination file - not a folder. You are specifying the second parameter as the destination folder, not the destination filename - which is what File.Move requires. So, your second parameter should be c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt.


You need to move it to another file (rather than a folder), this can also be used to rename.

Move:

File.Move(@"c:\test\SomeFile.txt", @"c:\test\Test\SomeFile.txt");

Rename:

File.Move(@"c:\test\SomeFile.txt", @"c:\test\SomeFile2.txt");

The reason it says "File already exists" in your example, is because C:\test\Test tries to create a file Test without an extension, but cannot do so as a folder already exists with the same name.


Personally I prefer this method. This will overwrite the file on the destination, removes the source file and also prevent removing the source file when the copy fails.

string source = @"c:\test\SomeFile.txt";
string destination = @"c:\test\test\SomeFile.txt";

try
{
    File.Copy(source, destination, true);
    File.Delete(source);
}
catch
{
    //some error handling
}

Tags:

C#

File Io