Need Powershell script to remove all spaces from *.msg files in directory and subdirectories

Question

I have a whole bunch of users that are simply dragging emails from outlook on to a network share. That network SMB share gets sync'd with OneDrive and one drive hates to have leading spaces in a filename. Also some of the file names are so large that windows refuses to let me do anything with it (over 255 characters). I've found that simply renaming the files and taking out all the spaces does the trick. I have thousands of files in many sub directories and they keep adding more every day. I'd like a simple script that I can run everyday on the file server that scans all the *.msg files in a directory and all the sub directories and simply removes all the spaces. Can someone help me with a powershell script that will accomplish this?

I've tried using this script but it gives me lots of "Cannot create a file when that file already exists." errors. get-childitem -recurse *.msg | foreach { rename-item $_ $_.Name.Replace(" ", "") } — Kris Fluckiger
– Kris Fluckiger, Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 19:03
this will take time - every day - and will take longer every day since more files are being added. can you fix the problem on the user side? if not that, then perhaps a filesystemwatcher that will [1st] shorten the names, and [2nd] remove the spaces [both with a name collision check]. ///// for this one-time fix, tho, i would look into using a dedicated utility like this one ... Introduction - Bulk Rename Utility — bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php — Lee_Dailey
– Lee_Dailey, Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 19:37
Actually the above command worked perfectly for what I need to do — Kris Fluckiger
– Kris Fluckiger, Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 19:42
i presume the "it worked perfectly" comment is aimed at me. [grin] ///// if it worked perfectly, then why are you asking for help ... and why did you post that i created errors? — Lee_Dailey
– Lee_Dailey, Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 19:45

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-08 20:18:05Z

1

The following variation of your own answer should perform significantly better:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.msg |
  Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.Replace(' ', '') }

^{Note: You could add -File to Get-ChildItem in order to limit matches to files for extra robustness, but it actually slows down the command a bit (not much).}

-Filter filters at the source and is therefore much faster than using -Path (implied in your command) or -Include, which require PowerShell itself to examine all items.
Using a delay-bind script block as the -NewName argument performs better than a call to the ForEach-Object cmdlet in whose script block Rename-Item is called once every iteration.

Note:

There's a risk of name collisions.
Attempts to rename a file to itself - if the name contains no spaces - are quietly ignored.

edited Nov 8, 2018 at 20:18

answered Nov 8, 2018 at 20:02

mklement0

452k68 gold badges728 silver badges988 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Kris Fluckiger · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-08 19:43:38Z

0

This script works great:

get-childitem -recurse *.msg | foreach { rename-item $_ $_.Name.Replace(" ", "") }

answered Nov 8, 2018 at 19:43

Kris Fluckiger

11

1 Comment

mklement0 Over a year ago

Please format your code properly.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Need Powershell script to remove all spaces from *.msg files in directory and subdirectories

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related