Robocopy not copying files in subdirectories

I am having problems with robocopy for whatever reason.

I have several scripts I use daily that utilize copy, xcopy, and robocopy, and they are all working currently, except for this one. I am using the same, standard switches I use in my other scripts.

robocopy "K:\Some Folder" "H:\Files\1" /e /w:0 /r:2 /MIR

Any files directly in K:\Some Folder get copied. But any files in, say K:\Some Folder\Some Subfolder do not get copied. I looked this up and using either /s or /e should copy all files in sub-directories as well. Why isn't it? If I pause the script, it says "*Extra Files" in some places - that might have something to do with it.

Previously I was using these switches, but it still didn't work after simplifying:

 /e /w:0 /r:2 /XO /NFL /NDL /NJH /NJS /nc /ns /np

3 Answers

There's a /S option in robocopy, too. Also a /E that is like /S, but additionally forces empty folders to be copied.

/S : Copy Subfolders.
/E : Copy Subfolders, including Empty Subfolders.

Supposedly, /MIR implies /E…

/MIR : MIRror a directory tree—equivalent to /PURGE plus all subfolders (/E)

…but I have not found this to be empirically true. You should include the /E or /S option explicitly.

I found that the /b (Backup mode) switch works for me. Even though it appeared that I had the proper permissions to copy, robocopy seemed to disagree. /b fixed that issue.

Problem: Any files directly in K:\Some Folder get copied. But any files in K:\Some Folder\Some Subfolder do not get copied.

The solution is to not use robocopy at all, but use xcopy.

Instead of:

robocopy "K:\Some Folder" "H:\Files\1" /e /w:0 /r:2 /MIR

this should be used instead:

xcopy "K:\Some Folder" "H:\Files\1" /c /s /e /y

I don't know why robocopy didn't work, but xcopy with these switches does what needs to be done, quickly and efficiently.