Copy files in folders from a Document Library to disk

Copy SharePoint files in folders to disk

A common request is extracting all the files within folders in a document library. The simple script below allows one to specify a source folder, library, web, and output location. The $TargetRootFolder can be found as a URL parameter in the URL when viewing the target folder for migrating. The script preserves the full URL structure including all folders and subfolders. Recursion makes this clean and simple.

$webUrl = "http ://SharePoint/sites/MyWeb"
$TargetLib="MyLibrary"
$destination = "L:OutputLocation" 
#derived right from the URL when viewing the folder, this works:
$TargetRootFolder="%2MyWeb%2SubFolder"

$web = Get-SPWeb -Identity $webUrl

function ProcessFolder 
{
	param($folderUrl)    
	$folder = $web.GetFolder($folderUrl)    
	if (!$Folder.exists)
	{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor DarkRed "Whoops, folder at source does not exist, please recheck"
	}
	else
	{
	
	$destinationfolder = $destination + "/" + $folder.Url

	if (!(Test-Path -path $destinationfolder))         
	{             
		$dest = New-Item $destinationfolder -type directory          
	}   

	foreach ($file in $folder.Files) 
	{
	$binary = $file.OpenBinary()         
	$stream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($destinationfolder + "/" + $file.Name), Create         
	$writer = New-Object System.IO.BinaryWriter($stream)         
	$writer.write($binary)         
	$writer.Close()  
	Write-Host "+" -NoNewline
	}
		foreach ($sf in $folder.SubFolders)
		{
			ProcessFolder($sf.url)  #Not quite Ackerman's function, this is first order recursion
		}	
	}
}
ProcessFolder($TargetRootFolder)

Now, if you need to ensure no documents ever overwrite, such as if you rename on the fly, here’s a bit of code that will cycle through optional filenames until one is found that does not exist.

$inc=$null;
while (test-path $OutFileName)
{
$JPname="$($JPTitle)DUP$($inc)$($JPName.Substring($JPName.lastindexof(".")))"
$OutFileName=$destinationfolder + "/" + $inc+$JPName
$Inc++;
Write-Host "!" -NoNewline -ForegroundColor DarkRed
}