Does robocopy copy all files

No, by default Robocopy does NOT copy all files. It uses intelligent filtering.

What Robocopy Copies by Default:

• Only new files that don’t exist in the destination
• Only changed files where the source is newer than the destination
• Does NOT copy identical files that already exist at destination

To Force Copying All Files, Use These Switches:

• /MIR – Mirrors entire directory structure (copies all files, deletes extras at destination)
• /E – Copies all subdirectories and files (including empty folders)
• /COPYALL – Copies all file information (data, attributes, timestamps, permissions)
• /IS – Includes “same” files (copies files even if they already exist and are identical)

Critical Warning:

• /MIR will DELETE files at the destination that don’t exist in the source
• Always test with /L (dry run) first to see what would happen without actually copying

Example to Copy ALL Files:

robocopy C:\Source D:\Destination /E /COPYALL /IS