# How to move a file to another directory in Java

By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Dec 15, 2019. Topics: Java.
Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-move-file-to-another-directory

> A quick tutorial to learn how to move a file from one directory to another directory in Java.

In this quick article, you'll learn how to **move a file from one directory to another directory** in Java.

## Using `Files.move()` Method

In Java 7 and higher, you can use the `Files.move()` static method from Java NIO API to easily move a file from one location to another location as shown below:

```java
try {
    // source & destination files
    Path src = Paths.get("dir1/input.txt");
    Path target = Paths.get("dir2/input.txt");

    // move file fron one location to another
    Files.move(src, target, StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);

} catch (IOException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}
```

## Using `File.renameTo()` Method

In older Java versions (Java 6 and below), you can call the `renameTo()` method on a `File` object to move file from one directory to another directory as shown below:

```java
// source & destination files
File src = new File("dir1/input.txt");
File target = new File("dir2/input.txt");

// move file fron one location to another
if (src.renameTo(target)) {
    System.out.println("File is moved.");
} else {
    System.out.println("File failed to move!");
}
```

## Further Reading

You may be interested in other Java I/O articles:

* [Reading and Writing Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-files)
* [How to Read and Write Text Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-text-files)
* [How to Read and Write Binary Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-binary-files)
* [Reading and Writing Files using Java NIO API](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-files-nio-api)
* [How to read a file line by line in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/how-to-read-a-file-line-by-line-in-java)