Powershell: Cannot rename item at '...' does not exist.

Question

Hello,

I have a big folder with loads of folders in them and some folders contain corrupted extensions, they look like the following: .pdf___________... or .xls_________...
I'm trying to change the extensions because when i manually change the extension the files seem to work perfectly fine.

I've tried the following lines:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -filter ".xls_" | Rename-Item -NewName { [io.path]::ChangeExtension($.name, ".xls") }
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -filter "*.pdf*" | Rename-Item -NewName { [io.path]::ChangeExtension($_.name, ".pdf") }

but i keep on getting the same error:
Cannot rename item at '...' does not exist.

I've just done some googling trying to match the pieces of the puzzle. I am not familiar with using Powershell.
Can someone help me find a solution?

Answer 1

Hi @Liam Tielemans ,

please try this:

# Modify path  
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path Junk -filter "*.pdf*" -recurse  
foreach ($file in $files)  
{  
    $filename = $file.Name  
    $ext = $filename.Substring($filename.Length - 4)  
    $newfilename = $filename.Replace("$ext","pdf")  
    $file | Rename-Item -NewName $newfilename  
}  

----------

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 2

Hi @Liam Tielemans ,

maybe this helps. At least it looks like it's exactly like what you are looking for:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-rename-files-in-bulk/

# From the website linked above  
  
Get-ChildItem -Filter “*current*” -Recurse | Rename-Item -NewName {$_.name -replace ‘current’,’old’ }  

----------

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 3

@Andreas Baumgarten ,

This script does not do the job either sadly.

when i try:
Get-ChildItem -recurse -filter .pdf_

it perfectly runs and shows all the corrupted PDF-files with as extension .pdf_______________________________...

Once i try to add the pipeline:
| Rename-Item -NewName { [io.path]::ChangeExtension($_.name, ".pdf") }

I get the error:
Rename-Item : Cannot rename because item at 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Contractmanagement\1941ZO185_bijlagen.pdf___________________________________________________________________________________________________________' does not exist.
At line:1 char:41

• ... er .pdf | Rename-Item -NewName { [io.path]::ChangeExtension($_.name ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand

Is there any possible fix?

Answer 4

@Liam Tielemans

Just use this script the way it is and it should do the job. Just modify the path in the first line to your needs.

Get-ChildItem -Path Junk -filter "*.pdf*" -recurse | ForEach-Object {  
        $ext = ($_.Name).split('.')[1]  
        $_ | Rename-Item -NewName ($_.name).Replace("$ext","pdf")}  

It's working here like required. Maybe it's not the shortest solution but it works.

If you still like to go with your approach with the [io.path]::ChangeExtension($_.name, ".pdf") it's fine, enjoy ;-)

----------

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 5

The [io.path]'s ChangeExtension method require the complete path to the file, not just the file's name.

Get-ChildItem c:\junk -filter *.pdf_ | 
    Rename-Item -NewName { [io.path]::ChangeExtension($_.fullname, ".pdf") }