Welcome to my new blog! I wanted my first blog post to be something wholly positive, so I decided to share this Powershell script, in case there is anyone else out there who has struggled with automating the copying or moving of files from their phone. I find I am regularly cleaning pictures and other files off of my phone, due to the limited space, and for a long time I have wanted to make this process simpler and quicker – a one-click process would be ideal.
After searching online, I discovered this script, but from this page where there is a complaint that this script doesn’t work. Finding the same problem, I was able to use the provided Powershell and come up with a solution that does the job.
The problem with the script appeared to be in the Get-ChildShellItem function. The usage explanation in the page says to do the following:
$phone = Get-ChildShellItem | where { $_.name -eq 'a820t' }
Get-ChildShellItem -Path "$($phone.Path)\Phone\DCIM" -Filter '(.jpg)|(.3gp)$'
This just causes the script to hang. The problem seems to be that even though the Path to the phone can be retrieved, Windows cannot use it to access the folder.
My solution is to get the phone object, then split the path and step down the tree, using the GetFolder member of each item, until we reach the folder object in question. See the functions, “Get-Phone” and “Get-SubFolder” respectively.
The next problem was how to move the files. The original script uses the “MoveHere” shell method, passing the path of the source file. Again, this doesn’t work because Windows doesn’t like the path of the MTP device. But looking at Microsoft’s website, I noticed that you can pass the folder item (the file COM object) directly. I do not know if this is the best way to do this (e.g. it can cause a file-copy dialogue to appear), but it works!
So, with that short explanation, here is an example MoveFromPhone.ps1 script. An example of how to use it (with a command script) is also included below.
This Powershell script is provided ‘as-is’, without any express or implied warranty. In no event will I, the author, be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this script.
Please note again, that if used ‘as-is’, this script will move files from you phone: they will be deleted from the source (phone) and moved to the computer. If you want to copy files instead, you can replace the “MoveHere” function call with “CopyHere” instead. But once again, I can take no responsibility for the use, or misuse, of this script.
# Windows Powershell Script to move a set of files (based on a filter) from a folder
# on a MTP device (e.g. Android phone) to a folder on a computer, using the Windows Shell.
# By Daiyan Yingyu, 19 March 2018, based on the (non-working) script found here:
# https://www.pstips.net/access-file-system-against-mtp-connection.html
# as referenced here:
# https://powershell.org/forums/topic/powershell-mtp-connections/
#
# This Powershell script is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty.
# In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this script.
#
# Again, please note that used 'as-is' this script will MOVE files from you phone:
# the files will be DELETED from the source (the phone) and MOVED to the computer.
#
# If you want to copy files instead, you can replace the MoveHere function call with "CopyHere" instead.
# But once again, the author can take no responsibility for the use, or misuse, of this script.</em>
#
param([string]$phoneName,[string]$sourceFolder,[string]$targetFolder,[string]$filter='(.jpg)|(.mp4)$')
function Get-ShellProxy
{
if( -not $global:ShellProxy)
{
$global:ShellProxy = new-object -com Shell.Application
}
$global:ShellProxy
}
function Get-Phone
{
param($phoneName)
$shell = Get-ShellProxy
# 17 (0x11) = ssfDRIVES from the ShellSpecialFolderConstants (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb774096(v=vs.85).aspx)
# => "My Computer" — the virtual folder that contains everything on the local computer: storage devices, printers, and Control Panel.
# This folder can also contain mapped network drives.
$shellItem = $shell.NameSpace(17).self
$phone = $shellItem.GetFolder.items() | where { $_.name -eq $phoneName }
return $phone
}
function Get-SubFolder
{
param($parent,[string]$path)
$pathParts = @( $path.Split([system.io.path]::DirectorySeparatorChar) )
$current = $parent
foreach ($pathPart in $pathParts)
{
if ($pathPart)
{
$current = $current.GetFolder.items() | where { $_.Name -eq $pathPart }
}
}
return $current
}
$phoneFolderPath = $sourceFolder
$destinationFolderPath = $targetFolder
# Optionally add additional sub-folders to the destination path, such as one based on date
$phone = Get-Phone -phoneName $phoneName
$folder = Get-SubFolder -parent $phone -path $phoneFolderPath
$items = @( $folder.GetFolder.items() | where { $_.Name -match $filter } )
if ($items)
{
$totalItems = $items.count
if ($totalItems -gt 0)
{
# If destination path doesn't exist, create it only if we have some items to move
if (-not (test-path $destinationFolderPath) )
{
$created = new-item -itemtype directory -path $destinationFolderPath
}
Write-Verbose "Processing Path : $phoneName\$phoneFolderPath"
Write-Verbose "Moving to : $destinationFolderPath"
$shell = Get-ShellProxy
$destinationFolder = $shell.Namespace($destinationFolderPath).self
$count = 0;
foreach ($item in $items)
{
$fileName = $item.Name
++$count
$percent = [int](($count * 100) / $totalItems)
Write-Progress -Activity "Processing Files in $phoneName\$phoneFolderPath" `
-status "Processing File ${count} / ${totalItems} (${percent}%)" `
-CurrentOperation $fileName `
-PercentComplete $percent
# Check the target file doesn't exist:
$targetFilePath = join-path -path $destinationFolderPath -childPath $fileName
if (test-path -path $targetFilePath)
{
write-error "Destination file exists - file not moved:`n`t$targetFilePath"
}
else
{
$destinationFolder.GetFolder.MoveHere($item)
if (test-path -path $targetFilePath)
{
# Optionally do something with the file, such as modify the name (e.g. removed phone-added prefix, etc.)
}
else
{
write-error "Failed to move file to destination:`n`t$targetFilePath"
}
}
}
}
}
To call the script you need to supply:
- the name of the phone (or MTP device). This is as it appears in Windows Explorer, and is usually the name you have given to the device in its settings
- the path to the folder in the device. Usually starts with something like “Phone” or “Internal shared storage”, etc.
- the fully-qualified path to the folder on the computer to where you want to move the files.
- a regular expression for all the files you want to move. For example, for images and videos you might want ‘(.jpg)|(.mp4)$’
You can put the commands into a batch (command) script to move the files from several locations. Here is an example:
@echo off REM Example use of MoveFromPhone.ps1 to move pictures from a phone onto computer REM REM This Windows Command Line script is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. REM In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this script. REM REM Again, please note that when used with the 'MoveFromPhone.ps1' as originally written, REM files will be MOVED from you phone: they will be DELETED from the sourceFolder (the phone) REM and MOVED to the targetFolder (on the computer). REM powershell Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -scope currentuser REM Camera files powershell.exe "& '%~dp0MoveFromPhone.ps1' -phoneName 'MyPhone' -sourceFolder 'Internal shared storage\DCIM\Camera' -targetFolder 'C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Camera' -filter '(.jpg)|(.mp4)$'" REM Facebook powershell.exe "& '%~dp0MoveFromPhone.ps1' -phoneName 'MyPhone' -sourceFolder 'Internal shared storage\DCIM\Facebook' -targetFolder 'C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Facebook' -filter '(.jpg)|(.mp4)$'" REM Screenshots powershell.exe "& '%~dp0MoveFromPhone.ps1' -phoneName 'MyPhone' -sourceFolder 'Internal shared storage\DCIM\Screenshots' -targetFolder 'C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Screenshots' -filter '(.png)$'" pause
Please feel free to comment if you spot any mistakes or have any ideas or suggestions for improvements.
Thanks a lot Daiyan for the code sample!
The only thing I have a doubt about now would be how to perform the opposite action, move a file from the computer to the mobile device.
Also I would like to know if the action of deleting a file from the mobile device is possible.
Hello,
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I was able to retrieve my 6k+ pictures bypassing “Photos” app erros and explorer.
Your method of getting the phone folder didn’t work for me or I didn’t get it, the following lines modified around line 60 did the trick.
Select the DCIM folder in the iPhone when the file selector window appears.
———————————————————————————————-
#$phone = Get-Phone -phoneName $phoneName
#$folder = Get-SubFolder -parent $phone -path $phoneFolderPath
$ff = $app.BrowseForFolder(0,”Select Folder — Cancel to select ALL”,0,”Ce PC\Apple iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM”)
foreach ($folder in $ff.Items()) {
$folder = $folder.GetFolder()
$items = @( $folder.Items() | where { $_.Name -match $filter } )
if ($items)
{
Glad you were able to modify it to work with iPhone.
I did mention in the comments that I’ve only used this with Android. (I didn’t even know it was possible with iPhone.)
I would suggest that you modify the methods “Get-Phone” and “Get-SubFolder” to make them work as expected, rather than by-passing them.
What is the “$app” variable?
“BrowseForFolder” appears to be a UI component – a dialogue to allow the user to search for a folder. One of the points of this script is to automate the process, rather than needing a user’s intervention.
Cheers.
Thank you very much for sharing 🙂 I use it to sync my GoPro
Hi Daiyan,
Get-SubFolder function is not working as expected & is giving a Null Exception error. I have checked the logic one by one, but still the same. All variables are empty.
Is there anything you can do to help with, that would be very great?
Many Thanks,
Sajid
function Get-SubFolder
{
param($parent,[string]$path)
$pathParts = @( $path.Split([system.io.path]::DirectorySeparatorChar) )
$current = $parent
foreach ($pathPart in $pathParts)
{
if ($pathPart)
{
$current = $current.GetFolder.items() | where { $_.Name -eq $pathPart }
}
}
return $current
}
Hi Sajid,
Thanks for your feedback. It seems I didn’t put my updated script here.
Simply replace the line
if ($pathPart)
with
if ($current -and $pathPart)
and see if that solves your problem.
Sorry about that. When I have some time I will do a comparison of my example script with my working script to make sure it is up to date.
Cheers.
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In line 59 of your script:
Write-Verbose “Copying to : $destinationFolderPath”
You explicitly send to powershell the word “Copying”. These files are not being copied, they are being moved. Do you think this can cause a problem for anyone using your script? Personally, this has done irreparable damage. Fix your UX.
Thanks for the heads up. I have corrected it in the text and script file.
I am not sure why that got left in. I know in my early days of experimenting with this I was copying files instead of moving them (for obvious reasons), and one script I still use gives the option, with a function “CopyOrMoveFiles” (how that begins is shown at the end of this comment). The script in this post was one I edited from my original scripts to share with others to show how to do this, because my scripts do a lot more than this. I guess the Copy got left in from somewhere by mistake.
I can only apologise. I hope you are able to put the files back. I hope you don’t hold me responsible for any loss. I would point out that, aside from that text (which is only displayed when verbose output is on) and a comment, I believe it is pretty clear that the script is written to move the files:
1) it says so in my post – in fact “Move” appeared 14 times in the post, while “copy” appeared only four times; the paragraph before the script clearly says “The next problem was how to move the files. The original script uses the “MoveHere” shell method“. Furthermore I mentioned in the first paragraph that my purpose was for “cleaning pictures and other files off of my phone“.
2) it says so in the comment at the top of the script: “Windows Powershell Script to move a set of files“.
3) the function on the shell folder that does the job is called “MoveFile”: “GetFolder.MoveHere” is fairly prominent, as it appears in black amongst brown text.
4) BOTH example script files are called “MoveFromPhone” (MoveFromPhone.ps1 and MoveFromPhone.cmd), the command script calls the Powershell script and it has a comment at the top that says “Example use of MoveFromPhone.ps1 to move pictures from a phone“.
So, in short, I cannot believe anyone would not notice any of these references to “moving files” before running the script, which is when one was most likely to first notice the reference to “Copying”. But again apologise if this was you.
I think now I will add a disclaimer, and also make it more prominent that it is moving the files.
As mentioned above, this is how my “CopyOrMoveFiles” function starts:
function CopyOrMoveFiles
{
param($folder,[string]$destinationFolderPath,[switch]$moveFiles=$false,[string]$filter=$null,[int]$progressParentId=-1)
$copyText = ‘copy’
$copyingText = ‘Copying’
$copiedText = ‘copied’
if ($moveFiles)
{
$copyText = ‘move’
$copyingText = ‘Moving’
$copiedText = ‘moved’
}
# …
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Thank you for your kind words. I don’t have any kind of subscription. I didn’t know I have an RSS feed even! 😀 I’m sorry I haven’t written much on this blog yet. I am considering recreating some past posts at first, but I need to consider the purpose(s) of this blog to take it forward. In the meantime I have been working on other projects, and just hope to be able to get around to doing something with this blog in the not too distant future.
Another issue I have is that it seems apps on the phone sometimes keep files “locked” with one of two results:
1) the file is seen by the computer, but cannot be copied/moved; in which case the script throws up an error dialogue which you have to clear before it continues. I haven’t tried to fix this, because it’s kinda useful to know there’s been a problem. I can kill the script and run it again after sorting out the issue.
2) the file is not seen by the computer at all (even though it can be seen in a file browser on the phone)
The only way to solve either of these issues is make sure all apps are shut down on the phone (as far as possible) and then restart the phone. Sometimes even this hasn’t solved the “invisible file” problem, and I have to manually move the files on the phone to another folder or to the computer directly.
thanks for the code, i am now using it for backingup files from my iphone, real easy to use, i used to use file explorer to drag files from iphone folder and now can have it automated
one point need your advice, if u encountered before, i found iphone will become disconnected when copying big files like mov, it also happen before when i am using file explorer, so it is not your script issue, maybe some general iphone connectivitiy issue, btw, it happens at random, some mov file can be copied but some cannot…
i now use your script and filtering out those mov files, all other jpg/mp4 can be copied.
pls comment, thanks again
Thanks for the compliment, Michael.
I have never used an iPhone, so I didn’t even know this would work with one!
I think the only time I’ve had a similar problem is if the phone disconnects from the computer. The connection on my phone and/or computer is not tight, or the cable might be slightly “iffy”. Basically, to avoid this problem, I simply make sure the connection is in a stable state – connected, phone switched to Transfer Files mode, and computer has detected it – before running the script. And then, make sure not to move the phone (or computer), or touch the cable, etc, until the task has completed.
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Is there any possibility to use the “-Recurse”?
Similar to there:
“Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -Recurse -Include *.jpg, *.raw, *.jpeg”
I starded in this way
It seemed very simple and it worked until I tested with my phone.
I also used the folder tree based on the Year and Month.
Unfortunately, using Windows to access files through MTP doesn’t have that feature. This is the whole purpose of this script. If you know of another way via the USB connection, feel free to share it.
One other possible solution is to use FTP . If your phone is connected via wi-fi on a shared network with the computer to which you want to move the files, some phone File Manager apps can configure a FTP point. I guess it could be possible to write a script to automate getting files in that way. However, even whether that has “Get-ChildItem” or “-recurse” I don’t know. It might be faster than MTP.
Nice! But, having played with the shell object some, I can suggest a slight simplification in the Get-Phone function. The folder object returned the Namespace method is identical to $ShellItem.GetFolder. Try the following:
$Shell = new-object -comobject Shell.Application
$Shell.Namespace(17).Items | select name
$Shell.Namespace(17).self.GetFolder.Items() | select name
$shell.namespace(17) | gm
$Shell.Namespace(17).Self.GetFolder | gm
Peace!
I don’t quite understand what you are trying to achieve there.
The GetPhone method returns the folder object representing the supplied phone name. By doing “select name”, you’ll only return the name, which we already know. The code I supplied is making similar calls, but returning the phone object for iterating through the folders in the phone.
Could you explain more where you think it could be simplified?
Thank you. It is a very nice script
I have a question:
is it possible to retrieve modifieddate of the picture on the phone?
because I like to move/copy files after a certain datetime.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your comment. I am sorry I didn’t spot it earlier. I haven’t been checking, because most comments are spam. Yours was the only one that even mentioned the content of the post.
Perhaps you have already got the answer. I did not post the full script that I use, because I wanted to focus on the actual method of copying or moving the files, but in fact my own script does indeed sort pictures by date/time.
I did not find a way to get the information from the file while it is on the phone, so it is copied or moved to a location on the computer, then the information obtained from the file there, a new name/location determined and the file moved (renamed) to the new location.
I first attempt to get the date taken property from within the picture itself. If that fails (i.e, no date-taken tag is available), get the modified time of the file (the original modified time should have been maintained by the copy or move, so this does seem to work for me).
So I have two functions, which take the path of the file on the computer. The first is called, and the second called if the first returns an empty string:
function GetPictureDateTakenString
{
param([string]$filePath)
$dateTakenString = ”
$OldErrorActionPref = $ErrorActionPreference
$ErrorActionPreference = “SilentlyContinue”
$pic = New-Object System.Drawing.Bitmap($filePath)
if ($pic)
{
$dateTakenBytes = $pic.GetPropertyItem(36867).Value
if ($dateTakenBytes)
{
$dateTakenString = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString($dateTakenBytes)
$dateTaken = [datetime]::ParseExact($dateTakenString,”yyyy:MM:dd HH:mm:ss`0″,$Null)
$dateTakenString = $dateTaken.tostring(“yyyyMMdd_HHmmss”)
}
$pic.Dispose()
$pic = $null
}
$ErrorActionPreference = $OldErrorActionPref
return $dateTakenString
}
function GetModifiedFileTimeString
{
param([string]$filePath)
$lastModifiedDate = (Get-Item $filePath).LastWriteTime
$dateTimeModifiedString = $lastModifiedDate.tostring(“yyyyMMdd_HHmmss”)
return $dateTimeModifiedString
}
I hope that’s helpful, even if it is rather late.