I downloaded my photos from google photos to use in a display frame. The frame expects a flat list of files with no directory structure.
The archive I got from google has a zillion folders with a few files in each.
How can I convert a directory full of folders into a flat listing of all the files in them?
You still need the fully qualified path to each file.
This works for me: dir D:\Canon\Pictures /s /n /on /b
Output looks like this:
If you redirect the output to a file then you can do whatever you need with it:D:\Canon\Pictures\Volkswagon Car Show\2009-10-11\085.JPG
D:\Canon\Pictures\Volkswagon Car Show\2009-10-11\086.JPG
D:\Canon\Pictures\Volkswagon Car Show\2009-10-11\087.JPG
D:\Canon\Pictures\Volkswagon Car Show\2009-10-11\088.JPG
D:\Canon\Pictures\Volkswagon Car Show\2009-10-11\089.JPG
D:\Canon\Pictures\Warped Cartoons\image1.jpg
D:\Canon\Pictures\Warped Cartoons\image10.jpg
D:\Canon\Pictures\Warped Cartoons\image11.jpg
D:\Canon\Pictures\Warped Cartoons\image12.jpg
D:\Canon\Pictures\Warped Cartoons\image13.jpg
dir D:\Canon\Pictures /s /n /on /b > pics.txt
I errantly stated my needs....I need a folder containing the files in all of those folders. Not just a listing.
I did the same some time ago and created the Folder on an SDHC card and Copied all the desired files to that Folder [didn't disturb the originals]. A basic issue for years has been that a single Folder cannot contain 2 or more files of the same exact name, duplicates would have to be renamed by at least 1 character difference.
My dilemma is that I have 16,000 files buried in about 4,000 folders. I need to automate this process somehow.
You can use the Everything search tool from voidtools.com
Enter the proper search term, probably .jpg
The window will then show all files with a .jpg extension.
Sort by directory structure if necessary, if there are some jpg files you want to exclude.
Highlight the desired jpg files with the mouse in that Everything window.
Right click and copy. It might take a few minutes for that to take effect.
Then paste to the folder of your choice.
The destination folder will then have all the files, flat, with no directory structure at all.
There are other ways, but that's what I use.
If you have 16000 files, the copy process may choke or stall or fail--due to the total amount of files in a single batch.
If that happens, try smaller batches at a time. Perhaps 6000, 6000 again, and then 4000 for the remainder. Just make a note of which directories you grabbed on each attempt so you are sure to get them all within the 3 batches.
I did what you are doing a couple of weeks ago, for 29000 mp3 files. I broke the copy process up into 4 or 5 batches.
An experience: I was doing file management a couple of months ago using my HP 1.5GHz Notebook with 4GB RAM, also got choked. Since it wasn't readily feasible to add more RAM my solution was to plug in an 8GB SDHC card and activate ReadyBoost, works great and can be either a temporary solution or leave it in.
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