---
title: "rclone move"
description: "Move files from source to dest."
slug: rclone_move
url: /commands/rclone_move/
# autogenerated - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit the source code in cmd/move/ and as part of making a release run "make commanddocs"
---
# 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.

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`.

Note that the destination is always a directory. If the path
does not exist, it will be created as a directory and the contents of
the source will be moved into it. This is the case even if the source
path points to a file. If you want to move a single file to a different
name you must use [moveto](commands/rclone_moveto/) instead.

For example, given the command:

    rclone move source:sourcepath/one.txt dest:destpath/one.txt

Rclone will create a directory `dest:destpath/one.txt` and put the source file in there:

    dest:destpath/one.txt/one.txt

Not move the single source file into the given destination path,
which would be the result if moveto had been used instead:

    dest:destpath/one.txt

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

See the [--no-traverse](/docs/#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.

**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
```

See the [global flags page](/flags/) for global options not listed here.

## SEE ALSO

* [rclone](/commands/rclone/)	 - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.