Command Copy exited with Code 1

73 Comments

• Verry good post...
  
  Cheers
  

• If this is happening with code written by another developer, which you are now working on - you should check that the paths you are copying to and from do not contain spaces. A folder name with a space character will cause this error.
  

• Really a great post, Specially comment made by Libby was very useful for me. As the path i was using to copy files contained spaces and was causing this error.
  
  Cheers
  

• Thanks man, it was getting really hard to solve this, fortunatly I found your post!
  

• Hey a very cool post..It helped me to fix this dam error which wasted my 2 dam days..
  Thanx..
  

• Enclosing paths with double quotes solves the space character problem, for example:
  
  copy "path1/files.*" "path2/"
  

• THanks a lot .. It helped
  

• My problem was the read only attribute on the file to cover.
  Thus, I've solved using an "attrib" command before copying:
  attrib -R $(SolutionDir)Public\PublicUI\Bin\mydll.*
  
  copy $(TargetDir)mydll.* $(SolutionDir)Public\PublicUI\Bin
  

• Saved me some frustration as well.
  
  Lesson learned: never put spaces in your username.
  

• Thank you, thank you, I had spaces in path!
  

• Yes! Spaces in the paths! Double quotes! Sweet!
  

• Thanks! Spaces in the paths! Double quotes!
  

• Thanks a lot!
  I've linked your post on my blog.
  

• I did not get a thing of what you wrote, but I see many did and apparently it was a life-saving thing you talked about.
  
  Keep it going. Wishes.
  
  

• HOW DO I FIX IT...?
  

• Just remove the pre-build / post-build batch commands. I mean simply put, select the commands and delete them. This should definitely help you. I hope now you know HOW TO FIX IT...!!!
  

• This has been one of my most appreciated blog post... It has been over a year I had written this blog post and it gives me immense pleasure to see that I still receive inspiring comments on this.
  
  Just wanted to express my appreciation to all readers and those who have posted comments...
  
  Thanks.
  

• Awesome, I was getting crazy trying to figure out what the f*** was going on with my solution...
  
  Thanks dude.
  

• Another thankyou for the spaces in the path solution!
  

• Thanks Dude !!!
  
  I was getting the same issue.
  
  was searched over about 2 days
  
  And At Last Found the solution from this issue.
  
  Thanks Agian...
  
  God Bless You.
  
  Keep Growing.
  
  
  

• Mine still not working :/
  the code is :
  
  copy "$(SolutionDir)MyUserControlLibrary\*.ascx" "$(ProjectDir)UserControls\"
  
  Can any1 help me plz?
  
  

• one more thanks...
  

• huh... cognitively thoughts..
  

• Mine wasn't working either - I had no spaces in the path and the file I was trying to copy was not read-only. I am using a relative path. Turns out the current directory was not what I thought it was. It was the $(OutDir) not the $(ProjectDir).
  

• yes.. nice text ))
  

• Mine copy "$(SolutionDir)Application\UI\bin\content_config.*.xml" "$(SolutionDir)Tools\ContentTranslatorTester\References"
  works fine.
  Try to make it like this
  

• i'm gonna make my own journal
  

• It really helped saving my time !!!
  Thanks a lot.
  

• Wow, you guys are just great. The double quotes idea took care of the spaces in my path names; and to think I spent soooooo much time and energy trying to figure out what was wrong. Keep up the great work ;-)
  

• very helpful hints. thank you.
  

• I had the same problem and solved it by un-checking the read-only checkbox under folder properties dialog. Root cause: VSS
  

• Thanks, the double quotes worked for me
  

• Thanks! just what I was looking for.
  

• Thanks a lot. This helped me!!!
  

• I tried all the options list above and still getting the same error. Finally I found out the Designation Dll/file was opened/edit exclusively. For example my Dll was still in the service one of my hosting components.
  
  Hope this help.
  

• Thanks a lot. It is very helpfull.
  

• Hi this is really nice to see people like you who presents such type of help that is very accurate and helpful
  

• 
  My project not working
  
  copy "$(F:\My\ASP Net Web Forms\Test Web Form\VSWeb)\MyUserControlLibrary\*.ascx" " $(F:\My\ASP Net Web Forms\Test Web Form\VSWeb\VSWeb)\UserControls\"
  
  can any 1 help me?
  

• does your command work in the visual studio command prompt? If it doesn't work there it won't work here.
  

• Thanks mate, pointed me in the right direction. Concise, clear and accurate information. Saved me hours of mucking about and pulling out what little remaining hair I have left! - Cheers, all the best.
  

• This worked for me:
  
  copy /y "$(ProjectDir)Some.dll" "$(TargetDir)"
  

• Thanks a lot. It is very helpfull.
  

• I had the same issue while migrating a legacy build to TFS as TFS version control sets all files under version control as read only.
  
  The solution was to set the directory to copy the files into to writeable, copy the files and then set it back to read only.
  
  attrib -R $(SolutionDir)\Silverlight\WebApp\ClientBin
  copy /y $(ProjectDir)\ServiceReferences.ClientConfig $(SolutionDir)\Silverlight\WebApp\ClientBin
  attrib +R $(SolutionDir)\Silverlight\WebApp\ClientBin
  
  

• Great post. Simplicity is bliss!
  

• If it's not the spaces then you need to go to your project properties. From there go to the build events, then post-build setup, and delete the lines in there, and set the use post-build setup to no, this should take care of it.
  

• very very useful!!! thanks!!!
  

• In my case was just that the App.config, App.config.Debug, App.config.Release where readonly, so the copy command wouldn't work.
  
  ( this happen right after I got latest from my team foundation server, it marked the files as read only, and I guess the copy command cant overide)
  
  I right clicked in my solution folder, unchecked read only and that fixed the problem
  

• I meant to say:
  In my case was just that the App.config, App.config.Debug, App.config.Release WHERE readonly
  

• I give up.. sorry I mean :
  
  WERE read only
  

• Hei, thanks a lot for that post. I was trying for a long time and now it finally works.
  
  For those who couldn't built even so:
  
  Other possibilities:
  
  -pathes are too long (not more then 260 charakters)
  
  -Attribute "Read-Only" is set in the target folder
  
  -a space in a name of a file in the path
  (Don`t know if this is possible, i just read that in an other post)
  

• Thanks so much for this post! I had white-spaces in the file paths in my commands and was frustrated with my build failures...this post saved my day!
  

• That was really helpful, thank you.
  

• My problem was the read only attribute on the file to cover.
  
  Thus, I've solved using an "attrib" command before copying:
  
  attrib -R $(SolutionDir)Public\PublicUI\Bin\mydll.*
  
  copy $(TargetDir)mydll.* $(SolutionDir)Public\PublicUI\Bin
  

• I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
  

• Simple a to the point post.. Good thread of response.
  Helped me to resolve the problem.
  

• sharing my experience, my problem was the target copy directory was also bound to VSS, thus making it read-only. removing that property fixed it. :)
  

• Thanks. It solved my problem. I removed the "copy command" since i directly pointed out the Output path to required directory.
  

• The attrib -R did the job for me
  

• Thanks a lot , it really helped me a lot !!!
  

• Hi, thanks so much! this small help means i didnt have to spend hours pulling my hair out over a tiny problem :-) .... Does anyone know what u need to add to give admin rights for the "copy" command? Sometimes that can be an issue as well
  

• Great it help Me.......Thanks
  

• The second comment fixed it for me. The path contained spaces, wrapping the path in quotes fixed it, thanks a lot!
  

• Tanks a lot....It's works for me...
  

• Thanks Helped a lot, would have been stuck on this for a while I imagine
  

• I was executing a command (7zip) that completed successfully with a message: "Everything OK". Apparently this output threw off VS and indicated an error and I rec'd the Code 1 error message from VS.
  
  I placed an exit 0 at the end of the script and it went away.
  

• Thanks for The "attrib -R" trick !
  worked like a charm ;)
  

• The command "copy /Y C:\Automation checked out code\CsharpBase\framework\XTest.SetupServer\bin\Debug\XTest.SetupServer.exe C:\Automation checked out code\CsharpBase\\bin\" exited with code 1
  
  Please provide the solution for the error...
  

• while building it has getting as below error
  
  The command "copy "C:\noscan\UniversityServices\TranscriptRequest\Trunk\bin\Apollo.LMS.Services.TranscriptRequest.dll" "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Services\Assemblies\"
  copy "C:\noscan\UniversityServices\TranscriptRequest\Trunk\bin\Apollo.LMS.Services.TranscriptRequest.dll" "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Services\bin\"" exited with code 1.
  
  
  any help greatly appreciated.
  

• Thanks a lot for your post, it solved my problem. :)
  

• Thanks a lot!! It helped
  

• it helped me a lot. Thanks Man Olli M . You told me to put double quotes and it worked. I finally understand it now.
  

• Thanks a lot :) I really find it difficult how to clear this error. When I saw this error in this link I am able to solve easily.
  
  
  

• Thanx...
  this post help me a lot.