Folder operations and source cleanup

Understand recursive selections, retained cloud folders, and safe deletion boundaries.

Folders contain a changing set of children. When you select a folder, a transfer records the entries it intends to process. New files added afterward are not silently included in automatic source cleanup.

Copying and moving folders

A folder copy transfers its admitted contents into the destination structure. A folder move can copy its files and then remove only the recorded source files that pass verification and revision checks. The source cloud folder itself can remain.

Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox do not provide the atomic folder-membership condition required for safe cloud folder removal. Strive therefore refuses that removal rather than deleting a folder that may now contain unrecorded children. A move that retains the folder reports the outcome.

For S3-compatible storage, apparent folders may be key prefixes and optional folder markers. Strive removes verified empty folder markers where allowed. It does not treat a folder label as proof that every object under the prefix is safe to erase.

Recursive deletion

A recursive delete can remove its recorded files and retain the parent folder. Inspect the job's partial outcome. The remaining folder is not necessarily an error, and deleting it manually could affect new children that were outside the original selection.

Creating and renaming

Use the available create-folder or rename action in the selected provider. Folder names and relocation semantics are subject to provider rules. Existing destination folders cannot be recursively replaced through a file replacement policy.

Before manual cleanup after a move, refresh the source folder and compare its current contents with the receipt. Confirm that any retained item is still the original intended item. A source-revision refusal protects later changes; it should not be worked around by blindly deleting the current version.

See copy and move and limits.