WinSCP PowerShell script with mask downloads files but creates empty folders

Question

I am using a PowerShell script using the module WinSCP to download files from a SFTP server.

I am using a file mask so I only download files matching *.zip which have been added today. The SFTP folder structure is as follows:

\folderA\
\folderA\folderB

What should happen is that any files matching the file mask will be downloaded from folderA to C:\Files. But what is happening is when the matching files are downloaded, folderB is also created in C:\Files which I do not want. I could add a delete line to remove it but I will be adding to the script to download files from folderB to the same location, C:\Files so I cannot workout how to just download matching files without the corresponding folder structure being created.

Here is the code being used:

$ftpConfig = @{
    HostName     = "ftp.server.com"
    UserName     = "user"
    RemotePath   = "/foldera/"
    LocalPath    = "C:\Files\"    
}

$transferOptions.FileMask = "*.zip>Today"
Receive-WinSCPItem -WinSCPSession $winscpSession -TransferOptions $transferOptions -RemotePath $ftpConfig.RemotePath -LocalPath $ftpConfig.LocalPath

Note that I have excluded the contents for $winscpSession as I do not believe its relevant to the outcome.

I have tried setting RemotePath to the following:

/remote - This will download the whole folder structure so the result will be C:\Files\folderA\folderB. Plus any files matching will appear in C:\Files\folderA\.

/remote* - This does not download any files even though there are which match. /remote/* - Same result as /remote*, nothing gets downloaded.

None of these do not give me the desired outcome.

Any suggestions?
Thank you!

Martin Prikryl · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-10 06:18:20Z

2

If you want to avoid downloading any subfolders, exclude them in the filemask:

$transferOptions.FileMask = "*.zip>Today | */"

https://winscp.net/eng/docs/faq_script_non_recursive
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/file_mask

If you wan to avoid downloading/creating only subfolders that do not contain any matching files, use ExcludeEmptyDirectories raw transfer settings:

$transferOptions.AddRawSettings("ExcludeEmptyDirectories", "on")

https://winscp.net/eng/docs/rawtransfersettings#excludeemptydirectories

edited Nov 10 at 6:18

answered Nov 7 at 12:36

Martin Prikryl

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1 Comment

OrionUK Nov 7 at 14:20

Worked like a charm, amazing! Thank you!

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