PowerShell: Copy an entire document library from SharePoint 2007 to disk

Anatoly Mironov
December 11, 2012
For a while ago I needed to copy all files from a document library within a SharePoint 2007 site to the hard drive. So I didn’t need to copy files from SharePoint to SharePoint so I couldn’t use the stsadm -o export command or Chris O’Brien’s nice SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard. I came across the SPIEFolder application which should work with SharePoint 2007 and 2010. It has a site on codeplex: spiefolder.codeplex.com, but neither the binary nor the source code can be downloaded from there. After some searching I found the binary in the author’s skydrive. The fact that the source code was not available seemed as an disanvantage because I could not know what code was run. Nevertheless I tried it out and it didn’t work:
spiefolder -o export -url "http://dev/Documents" -directory c:\\tolle\\Documents –recursive
```I got the following error:

> The Web application at http://dev/Documents could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

So I wrote my own code to copy the documents. To write a console application feels so _yesterdayish_, so it is written in PowerShell. Even if there are no PowerShell snapins for SharePoint 2007, you have access to the entire Server Object Model, the only thing you have to do is to [load the SharePoint assembly](http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/11456/what-does-loadwithpartialnamemicrosoft-sharepoint-in-powershell-script-do/11458#11458): \[sourcecode language="powershell"\]\[void\]\[System.Reflection.Assembly\]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")\[/sourcecode\] Then you can instantiate all SharePoint objects like in C#, but [in a PowerShell way](http://salaudeen.blogspot.se/2011/05/how-to-use-powershell-with-sharepoint.html): \[sourcecode language="powershell"\]$site = new-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://dev") $web = $site.OpenWeb()\[/sourcecode\] You can even download [a module for emulating cmdlets: Get-SPWeb, Get-SPWebApplication and Get-SPFarm](http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/PowerShell-Script-for-d651d9e6), written by Natalia Tsymbalenko ([sharing-the-experience.blogspot.com](http://sharing-the-experience.blogspot.com/)) to get started or just to find some inspiration. I have created a ps1-script which only does one thing - it copies an entire document library to disk. Much of inspiration to structure the script comes from ["Delete-SPListItems" (sharepointryan.com)](http://sharepointryan.com/2012/08/02/delete-all-sharepoint-list-items-using-powershell/). Here it is: [Pull-Documents.ps1](https://github.com/mirontoli/sp-lend-id/blob/master/aran-aran/Pull-Documents.ps1 "See this script in my github repo") \[sourcecode language="powershell"\] <# .Synopsis     Use Pull-Documents to copy the entire document library to disk .Description     This script iterates recursively over all directories and files in a document library and writes binary data to the disk     The structure is kept as in the Document library     It is mainly written for SharePoint 2007, but it works even in SharePoint 2010 .Example     Pull-Document -Url http://dev -Library "Shared Documents" .Notes     Name: Pull-Documents.ps1     Author: Anatoly Mironov     Last Edit: 2012-12-03     Keywords: SPList, Documents, Files, SPDocumentLibrary .Links     https://sharepointkunskap.wordpress.com     http://www.bool.se .Inputs     None .Outputs     None #Requires -Version 1.0 #> \[CmdletBinding()\] Param( \[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)\]\[System.String\]$Url = $(Read-Host -prompt "Web Url"), \[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)\]\[System.String\]$Library = $(Read-Host -prompt "Document Library") ) \[void\]\[System.Reflection.Assembly\]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") $site = new-object microsoft.sharepoint.spsite($Url) $web = $site.OpenWeb() $site.Dispose() $folder = $web.GetFolder($Library) $folder # must output it otherwise "doesn't exist" in 2007 if(!$folder.Exists){     Write-Error "The document library cannot be found"     $web.Dispose()     return } $directory = $pwd.Path $rootDirectory = Join-Path $pwd $folder.Name if (Test-Path $rootDirectory) {     Write-Error "The folder $Library in the current directory already exists, please remove it"     $web.Dispose()     return } #progress variables $global:counter = 0 $global:total = 0 #recursively count all files to pull function count($folder) {     if ($folder.Name -ne "Forms") {         $global:total += $folder.Files.Count         $folder.SubFolders | Foreach { count $\_ }     } } write "counting files, please wait..." count $folder write "files count $global:total" function progress($path) {     $global:counter++     $percent = $global:counter / $global:total \* 100     write-progress -activity "Pulling documents from $Library" -status $path -PercentComplete $percent } #Write file to disk function Save ($file, $directory) {     $data = $file.OpenBinary()     $path = Join-Path $directory $file.Name     progress $path     \[System.IO.File\]::WriteAllBytes($path, $data) } #Forms folder doesn't need to be copied $formsDirectory = Join-Path $rootDirectory "Forms" function Pull($folder, \[string\]$directory) {     $directory = Join-Path $directory $folder.Name     if ($directory -eq $formsDirectory) {         return     }     mkdir $directory | out-null     $folder.Files | Foreach { Save $\_ $directory }     $folder.Subfolders | Foreach { Pull $\_ $directory } } Write "Copying files recursively" Pull $folder $directory $web.Dispose() \[/sourcecode\] I have tested this script in SharePoint 2007 and 2010. It works. Let me know if you find this useful or have some suggestions.

## Comments from Wordpress.com


#### 
[Ryan Dennis](http://www.sharepointryan.com "rdennis@iccohio.com") - <time datetime="2012-12-11 20:35:40">Dec 2, 2012</time>

Reblogged this on [sharepointryan.com](http://sharepointryan.com/2012/12/11/582/) and commented: Great post!
<hr />
#### 
[Anatoly Mironov]( "mirontoli@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2012-12-11 21:09:51">Dec 2, 2012</time>

Thanks Ryan! I hope it can help someone in the SharePoint community.I have got much help from the community in my SharePoint work, among them your awesome blog. I want to share my findings with the sharepoint community as well.
<hr />
#### 
[Anant]( "anant84@tpg.com.au") - <time datetime="2013-05-08 12:48:52">May 3, 2013</time>

Hi Anatoly, I have some large sites that have very large document libraries and some of them are as big as 32 GB. Do you know if there are any limits as to how big doc library we can copy/export from SharePoint and then import into another site collection? Thanks, Anant
<hr />
#### 
[Anatoly Mironov]( "mirontoli@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2013-05-08 20:35:17">May 3, 2013</time>

Hi Anant. It should be no limitations. This script iterates recursively through a whole document library and saves the files on disk, file after file. If you want to to save the files to another document library, probably it should be better to change the script and copy files directly to the target doc lib.
<hr />
#### 
[Shival Khanna]( "shival_khanna1@yahoo.com") - <time datetime="2013-05-12 18:28:56">May 0, 2013</time>

Hi Anatoly, This script is very useful. It worked like a charm.. Thanks for sharing it.
<hr />
#### 
[Anatoly Mironov]( "mirontoli@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2013-05-12 23:58:45">May 0, 2013</time>

Thanks for the feedback, Shival. I am glad to hear it.
<hr />
#### 
[Robyn Gwinn]( "rgwinn@misoenergy.org") - <time datetime="2015-09-15 19:12:27">Sep 2, 2015</time>

Is there a way to do the reverse of this script -- copy folders and files within the folders from a shared drive into a Sharepoint 2007 document library?
<hr />
#### 
[Anatoly Mironov](http://chuvash.eu "mirontoli@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2015-09-16 15:57:26">Sep 3, 2015</time>

There must be a way of doing that. Contact me if you need help.
<hr />
#### 
[krishna]( "krishna_lv915@yahoo.com") - <time datetime="2014-11-12 06:00:51">Nov 3, 2014</time>

Hi Anatoly, could please help me to understand, Where these files stores in the file system.
<hr />
#### 
[Ambrose](https://youtube.com "sammiebandy@aol.com") - <time datetime="2014-10-09 05:02:52">Oct 4, 2014</time>

I like what you guys are usually up too. Such clever ork annd exposure! Keep up the excellent works guys I've added you uys to my oown blogroll.
<hr />
#### 
[Robyn Farley]( "robyn.d.farley.ctr@mail.mil") - <time datetime="2014-07-30 19:21:13">Jul 3, 2014</time>

Awesome! Is it possible to redirect the output to a specific location?
<hr />
#### 
[Lori]( "lori.kahn@computershare.com") - <time datetime="2016-01-21 18:07:43">Jan 4, 2016</time>

Is there a way to edit this so that I would be able to input all URLs and Libraries through a txt file that lists all of them? If so, how would I do this? I have many sites that I have to export documents from and don't want to have to add all of these sites and libraries individually.
<hr />
#### 
[Tess](http://gravatar.com/tnoguero "t.noguero@acquire.com.au") - <time datetime="2017-01-16 03:28:34">Jan 1, 2017</time>

Hi Will this maintain the content type of the documents if I then upload them to SharePoint 13? Thanks
<hr />
#### 
[Steve Webster]( "webster.steve@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2017-11-01 16:49:33">Nov 3, 2017</time>

Thank you :) You have saved me a ton of work.
<hr />
#### 
[Omar]( "karama.omar92@gmail.com") - <time datetime="2021-10-08 14:39:08">Oct 5, 2021</time>

Hello Thank you for your post. I need your help on downloading from sharepoint. Please contact me on my mail.
<hr />