Move files in folders and subfolders older than one year

A colleague asked me if I could write a script that would move files within a folder or its subfolders that were older than one year into a new location but still keep the directory structure.
I figured it would be quite a challenge so I decided to do it for him; kind as I am =)

As I haven’t been providing this blog with something new in a long time I figured I could make it useful to more people if I added a few things, like different date formats and other various settings.

So here it goes:

REM Made by Niklas Jumlin. https://blog.jumlin.com
@echo off
cls
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
setLocal EnableExtensions

REM for safety precautions, nothing will actually run or be modified if you run this script.
REM to actually make us of this script you should edit the safety variable below to "no"
set safety=yes
if /i "%safety%"=="yes" set run=ECHO
if /i "%safety%"=="no" set run=@

set yourOldFolder=d:\folder-to-be-scanned
set yourNewFolder=e:\destination
set logfile=%AppData%\filemove_log.txt
set TmpFile=%AppData%\variables.txt
set debug=no

REM possible formats are "mm dd yyyy", "dd mm yyyy" and "yyyy mm dd"
set DateFormat=yyyy mm dd
REM possible separators are - (dash), / (slash) or . (dot)
set DateSeparator=-

REM script
dir /s /b /a:-D %yourOldFolder% > %TmpFile%
for /f "Tokens=* Delims= " %%a In (%AppData%\variables.txt) Do (
	REM from now on, to use variables set within this FOR loop, an expression sign (!) is needed at start and end of the variable. e.g !var! instead of %var%
	REM this also requires: setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
	REM set a variable to modified date of the current file
	call set md=%%~ta
	
	REM split up dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="dd mm yyyy" (
		for /f "Tokens=1,2,3 Delims=%DateSeparator% " %%i In ('echo !md!') do set md=%%i& set mm=%%j& set my=%%k
		)
	REM split up yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="yyyy mm dd" (
		for /f "Tokens=1,2,3 Delims=%DateSeparator% " %%i In ('echo !md!') do set my=%%i& set mm=%%j& set md=%%k
		)
	REM split up mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="mm dd yyyy" (
		for /f "Tokens=1,2,3 Delims=%DateSeparator% " %%i In ('echo !md!') do set mm=%%i& set md=%%j& set my=%%k
		)
	REM merge vars into one var
	call set mdate=!my! !mm! !md!
	
	REM remove spaces in mdate
	call set mdate=!mdate: =!
	
	REM debug1
		if /i "%debug%"=="yes" (
			echo CASE:
			echo File: %%~na
			echo Path: %%~pa
			echo Filetype: %%~xa
			echo Filesize: %%~za byte
			echo Full filepath: %%a
			echo Full path: %%~da%%~pa
			echo Modified date: !mdate!
			)
	REM end of debug1
	
	REM get current date, split up dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="dd mm yyyy" (
		for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=%DateSeparator%" %%i In ('date /t') Do set cd=%%i& set cm=%%j& set cy=%%k
		)
	REM get current date, split up yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="yyyy mm dd" (
		for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=%DateSeparator%" %%i In ('date /t') Do set cy=%%i& set cm=%%j& set cd=%%k
		)
	REM get current date, split up mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm to yyyy, mm and dd	
	if "%DateFormat%"=="mm dd yyyy" (
		for /f "Tokens=1-4 Delims=%DateSeparator%" %%i In ('date /t') Do set cm=%%i& set cd=%%j& set cy=%%k
		)
	REM set YYYY - (MINUS) 1 year
	call set /a cy=!cy!-1	
	REM merge vars into one var
	call set cdate=!cy! !cm! !cd!
	REM remove spaces in cdate
	call set cdate=!cdate: =!
	
	REM debug2
		if /i "%debug%"=="yes" (
			echo. 
			echo ACTION:
			echo "%%~nxa" is modified "!mdate!"
			echo If it would have been modified "!cdate!" it would be moved.
			echo. 
			echo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
			echo.
			echo See how the action would look like?
			
			REM confirm
			set /p confirm=y/n?:
				if /i "!confirm!"=="y" (
					cls
					echo move %%a %yourNewFolder%\olderThanOneYear%%~pa%%~nxa 
					echo. 
					pause 
					cls
					)
			REM end of confirm
			)
	REM end of debug2
			
	REM actual job
		if !mdate! LEQ !cdate! (
			REM write to logfile
			echo. >> %logfile%
			echo File: %%a >> %logfile%
			echo Modified: !mdate! - above file is more than one year old, will be moved >> %logfile%
			echo New path: %yourNewFolder%\olderThanOneYear%%~pa%%~nxa >> %logfile%
			echo Will delete, if empty: %%~da%%~pa >> %logfile%
			REM create directory structure of parent directories in %yourNewFolder% path. Requires: setLocal EnableExtensions
			%run% mkdir %yourNewFolder%\olderThanOneYear\%%~pa
			REM move file to new destination
			%run% move %%a %yourNewFolder%\olderThanOneYear%%~pa%%~nxa
			REM delete parent directory if empty
			%run% rmdir %%~da%%~pa
			)
			REM end of actual job
	)
	REM end of script
	
:exit
echo. 
echo Logfile: %logfile%
echo. 
EndLocal
pause

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