Flattening Folder Structure in Win 11

[sgrimshaw]

I've got a large music collection and it's organised by Artiist then by Album.

I need to copy a lot of albums onto SD Cards for use in the car, but the car is really not happy with the existing folder structure.

Is there a utility to copy sub-folders en-bulk to a drive/card as indicated below?

I've done a few albums by dragging from one pane to the other to try and show what I'm trying to do.

I'm sure I had some software to do this years ago, but I cannot remember it's name.

[Ydnaroo]

Select the folders you want transferring, right click on selection, select 'Show more options', then 'Send to' and then the card or drive you want them to go to. That should copy the folders you want to the 'top' of the target.

[sgrimshaw]

Ydnaroo said:

Select the folders you want transferring, right click on selection, select 'Show more options', then 'Send to' and then the card or drive you want them to go to. That should copy the folders you want to the 'top' of the target.

Tried that, the send to works fine but I can't select multiple folders on the left hand side.

[Crafty_]

start a command window

robocopy H:\ACDC\ L:\ /S

"take everything including sub folders in H\ACDC and put it on L\"

[Steve_H80]

I was thinking what a fine music collection, till I got down to Andrew Lloyd Webber
It might not be the file structure itself the car is objecting to, it might be the length of some of the file path names. If it is look for a bulk file renamer.

[Ydnaroo]

sgrimshaw said:

Tried that, the send to works fine but I can't select multiple folders on the left hand side.

Try: Select the top folder with your music collection. Do a search using " * kind:folder ". This should list all sub folders in the right panel. Now try selecting.

[Xenoous]

I would use either Robocopy or a quick PowerShell script. If you want to copy everything, try this (note the wildcard in the $source variable, it cycles through all parent folders, in your case, artists).


$source = "C:\Path\to\source\*\"
$destination = "C:\Path\to\destination\"
$albums = Get-ChildItem -Directory $source -Depth 1

If (!(Test-Path $destination)) {

New-Item -Path $destination -ItemType Directory

}

ForEach ($album in $albums) {

Copy-Item -Path $album.FullName -Destination $destination -Recurse -Force

}

[Mr.Grimsdale]

sgrimshaw said:

Tried that, the send to works fine but I can't select multiple folders on the left hand side.

If you hold down Ctrl on the keyboard as you select the folders it should let you select multiple folders at once

[sgrimshaw]

Ydnaroo said:

Try: Select the top folder with your music collection. Do a search using " * kind:folder ". This should list all sub folders in the right panel. Now try selecting.

Close, but it copied all the folders and subfolders. So, for example, I've got two copies of all the ACDC albums:

[Ydnaroo]

sgrimshaw said:

Close, but it copied all the folders and subfolders. So, for example, I've got two copies of all the ACDC albums:

You'll have to select the individual albums. I thought that's what you were trying to achieve.

[Ydnaroo]

sgrimshaw said:

Close, but it copied all the folders and subfolders. So, for example, I've got two copies of all the ACDC albums:

Once you've done your folder search, sort by folder (to the right of size, or: Sort- More-Folder) and that should separate the folder levels.

[sgrimshaw]

Mr.Grimsdale said:

If you hold down Ctrl on the keyboard as you select the folders it should let you select multiple folders at once

First thing I did, doesn't work ... try it.

[sgrimshaw]

Ydnaroo said:

Once you've done your folder search, sort by folder (to the right of size, or: Sort- More-Folder) and that should separate the folder levels.

That's cracked it!

Many thanks.

[Actual]

Holding [ctrl] and multiple clicks won't work on the tree and only works on the list on the right side.

Arrange your windows and drag and drop between the folders on the right side and don't use the tree.

[sgrimshaw]

Actual]Holding [ctrl said:

and multiple clicks won't work on the tree and only works on the list on the right side.

Arrange your windows and drag and drop between the folders on the right side and don't use the tree.

All sorted now thanks to Ydnaroo