# Remote side did not understand that I moved a subfolder
**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 7, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318 "2026-11-07T00:44:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@feklee](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/feklee)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/1 "2026-11-07T00:44:18Z")
Say, I have a Windows machine `win` and a Linux machine `lin`, and they both have folder `A` synced with each other, same with folder `B`. On `win`, `A` and `B` live both on `X:`. On `lin`, `A` and `B` also live on the same file system.
_If I move sub folder `x` from `A` to `B`, then will the files need to be copied again?_
I was assuming that no copy is necessary. Therefore I moved a large 20GB folder as described above. I did so by dragging it using Windows Explorer, which was near instant. However, clearly the files are being copied in their entirety over the network again. And that is slow here in China. Even over night, the job is not complete. Fortunately, I have a backup of `lin`. So I can populate `B/x` manually to stop the sync. I just didn’t think about that option yesterday.
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### Author:  [@chaos](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/chaos)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 1:18am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/2 "2026-11-07T01:18:14Z")
That’s not the method I would advise. Here’s what I suggest:
1. Make sure both sides are Up to Date both for the Folder and for the Remote Device
2. Pause the Folder on both sides
3. Move the directory associated with the Folder, wherever you’re moving it on the Device
4. Configure the Folder on the Device where you moved it to point to the updated location of the directory.
5. Then unpause the Folder on both sides
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### Author:  [@feklee](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/feklee)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 1:34am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/3 "2026-11-07T01:34:46Z")
> [@chaos](#):
>
> 1. Configure the Folder on the Device
I am moving a subfolder between shared folders. There is no reconfiguration necessary.
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### Author:  [@chaos](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/chaos)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/4 "2026-11-07T13:14:19Z")
I misunderstood. I would expect little or no redownloading would be required. You might choose to copy and later delete instead of move to be more sure of that.
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### Author:  [@feklee](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/feklee)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/5 "2026-11-07T15:19:54Z")
> [@chaos](#):
>
> You might choose to copy and later delete instead of move to be more sure of that.
Yes, maybe like this: Copy → Rescan → Delete
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### Author:  [@mraneri](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/mraneri)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2026, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/remote-side-did-not-understand-that-i-moved-a-subfolder/27318/6 "2026-11-07T16:20:56Z")
Moving or renaming and expecting syncthing to handle it like a move or a rename simply doesn’t work.
In your case you’re moving from one top level folder to another. But the reality is even if you’re moving or renaming a file or folder within a single folder it doesn’t work the way you would think.
It’s AT LEAST a “copy locally and delete” and it’s sometimes a “delete and retransfer”. In both cases there’s the added side effect that all the moved/renamed stuff also ends up duplicated in the versions folder which also doesn’t make any sense.
You eventually get what you want on the other end. But there is no such thing as an “atomic move” or an “atomic rename” in terms of moving/renaming files on a local machine to match a remote machine.
I regularly struggle with this because I do have versioning on and I regularly rename large (100-500GB) folders.
anyway don’t expect it to work like you think and you won’t be disappointed. LOL. As I said the remotes all catch up eventually.