robocopy is stuck looking in C:\Users\jack\Documents\My Music\

I am doing a robocopy as follows:

robocopy C:\Users\jack\Documents e:\WindowsBackup\Documents /mir >> e:\WindowsBackup\backup.log

The /mir option simply logs the progress. This goes for a while and copies more than a GB then gets stuck accessing:

C:\Users\jack\Documents\My Music\

and the error message is "Access is Denied". The copying never completes because it will be in an infinite loop looking in a place that does not exist. The Documents directory does not have a "My Music" directory. Why is this happening?

Normally "My Music" would be one level higher, in C:\Users\jack, not in C:\Users\jack\Documents.

Correction: It exists because I can "cd" into it. However I cannot see it in Windows Explorer and "Organize > Folder and Search > View tab" has the "show hidden" selected. So the first problem is that this not copying and secondly it not appearing in the Windows Explorer.

broiyan said:

The /mir option simply logs the progress.

Actually, /mir means /MIR :: Mirror a complete directory tree

Enable hidden files and look again to see if it shows up, should be there:

Okay, I did not realize there are two "Apply" buttons. Using both buttons does not cause the invisible directory to appear.

I would note that C:\Users\jack\Documents is a restore from Windows 8.1 to Windows 7. I would probably use 8.1 but it's an extra step to install and I have not gotten around to it yet.

I unchecked "Hide operating system files" and now I see a short cut called "my music". That's strange, I would not consider that to be an operating system file of the sort like CppRedist421.dll. In any event, the short cut probably is dead because I probably deleted the "My Music" folder that it would point to.

I hate all this "My" stuff. What purpose does it serve? Hate music too when I'm trying to get work done.

I'm hoping I can get this robocopy to work now.

broiyan said:

The copying never completes because it will be in an infinite loop looking in a place that does not exist.

Add a Retry Options parameter to your Robocopy command to limit the number of retries for failed copies.
I add a parm to set retries to 5 attempts with this /R:5
The default retry setting is 1 million

In CMD enter this for Robocopy help, to see this info:
Robocopy /?

EDIT:
Also look at using the /XD (Exclude Directories) option.

broiyan said:

I unchecked "Hide operating system files" and now I see a short cut called "my music". That's strange, I would not consider that to be an operating system file of the sort like CppRedist421.dll. In any event, the short cut probably is dead because I probably deleted the "My Music" folder that it would point to.

I hate all this "My" stuff. What purpose does it serve? Hate music too when I'm trying to get work done.

I'm hoping I can get this robocopy to work now.

You could try removing System and Hidden from the My Music folder properties if there. That should make it a normal folder, not a system/hidden folder.

DavidE, thanks for the tip about the retries. I think I'll leave it alone since this is a backup it should fail hard or not at all.

After deleting the broken shortcuts that were formerly hidden, the backup works.