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The File Mover workflow component moves or renames files between storage locations as a step in your workflow.

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Overview

  • Moves files between cloud storage locations (S3, GCS, Azure Blob, SFTP, etc.)
  • Can rename files during the move
  • Can extract ZIP archives and deliver the extracted files to the destination
  • Useful for archiving processed files or staging data between pipeline steps

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Configuration

1
Select the source connection and path.
2
Select the destination connection and path.
3
Configure file pattern matching (optional — filter which files to move).
4
Choose whether to delete the source file after moving.
5
Optionally, set Compression to None, Compress output to ZIP, or Extract ZIP files.

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Extract ZIP files

Use the Extract ZIP files option of the Compression setting when your source delivers ZIP archives and you need the files inside them at the destination. File Mover unpacks each archive that the source path matches and delivers the extracted files with their folder structure intact. The ZIP files themselves are not copied. Extract mode works with the file storage destinations that File Mover supports, including SFTP, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Google Drive. Compress output to ZIP is not available for Google Drive destinations. To configure extract mode:
1
In the File Mover component, set Compression to Extract ZIP files.
2
Set Extract layout to Separate folder for each ZIP or All files in the destination path.
3
Save the package.
When you select Extract ZIP files, the Append string to filename option is hidden. If you switch back to another compression option, your previous append string setting is restored.

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Source path requirements

Every file the source path matches must be a ZIP archive with a .zip extension (case-insensitive). If any matched file is not a ZIP, the job fails and names the file before anything is extracted.
  • To match several archives, use a wildcard, for example incoming/*.zip.
  • To match every file in a folder, end the path with /. All files in that folder must be ZIP archives.
  • If you enter a single file name, it must end in .zip. Otherwise the package fails validation when you save it.

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Extract layout

The Extract layout setting controls where the extracted files go: For example, with the destination path exports/ and a source archive orders.zip that contains 2024/jan.csv:

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Delete files from source

If you enable deleting files from the source, File Mover deletes the source ZIP files only after every extracted file has been delivered. If extraction or delivery fails, the source archives are kept.

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Limitations

  • You can’t combine extract mode with Append string to filename.
  • Each archive can contain at most 50,000 entries and 20 GiB of uncompressed data.
  • Encrypted, corrupt, and empty archives fail the job.
  • Archives that contain the same path twice fail the job.
  • Symbolic links inside archives are removed and not delivered.
  • File names that are not valid UTF-8 are refused. This affects some ZIP files created on Windows without the UTF-8 file name flag. Re-create the archive with UTF-8 file names.
  • Extracted file names can’t contain colons, except when the destination is Google Drive.
  • Existing files at the destination with the same name are overwritten. Point extract mode at an empty or dedicated destination folder, and don’t use the source folder as the destination.

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Use Cases

  • Archive raw files to a different S3 bucket after processing
  • Move files from an SFTP landing zone to cloud storage
  • Rename files with timestamps after a dataflow completes
  • Unpack ZIP archives from a vendor SFTP server into S3, GCS, or Google Drive
Last modified on October 19, 2026