Choosing the Right Rclone Command: Copy, Sync, or Move

Last updated on 2026-08-23 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What is the difference between copy, sync and move?
  • When should you choose one command over the others?

Objectives

  • Be able to pick the most appropriate command to move file(s)
  • Determine which command is most appropriate for different file management scenarios.

Copy, Sync, or Move

When managing your files with rclone, you have three primary commands: copy, sync, and move. Each command handles your data differently, so it’s important to know their unique behaviors to choose the right one for your task.

Command Changes source Adds/updates at destination Deletes at destination Safest for…
copy No Yes No Adding or updating files without any risk of deleting something
sync No Yes Yes — removes anything not in the source Making the destination an exact, up-to-date mirror of the source
move Removes files after a successful transfer Yes No Relocating files to free up space at the source

Copy

The copy command copies files from the source to the destination. It compares files by size, modification time, or checksum, and transfers only those that are new or have changed. Existing destination files that aren’t present at the source are left in place — copy does not delete them. Because of this, copy does not guarantee the destination matches the source, so running it once is not, by itself, a complete backup strategy.

Syntax:

BASH 

rclone copy source:sourcepath dest:destpath

Notes:

  • Only the contents of a directory are copied — not the directory itself.
  • Use the copyto command for copying single files.
  • If the destination path does not exist, it will be created.

Sync

The sync command makes the destination an exact mirror of the source. It copies new or updated files and deletes files in the destination that are not present in the source. Use sync when you need both locations to be identical, but be cautious as it can remove files from the destination.

Syntax:

BASH 

rclone sync source:path dest:path

Move

The move command transfers files from the source to the destination and then deletes them from the source after a successful transfer. This is useful when you want to relocate files rather than keep copies in both places.

Important Note: Since this can cause data loss, test first with the –dry-run or the –interactive/-i flag.

Syntax:

BASH 

rclone move source:path dest:path [flags]
Challenge

Choose the right command

For each scenario, decide whether copy, sync, or move is the safest choice, and explain why.

  1. You want your Box photos folder to always exactly match a folder on your laptop, including removing anything you’ve deleted locally.
  2. You’ve finished a project and want to free up space on your laptop by relocating the files to the cloud.
  3. You want to hand a colleague a copy of your files without touching anything already in their folder, or removing anything from yours.

Ask two questions for each scenario: should anything be deleted anywhere, and should the files still exist in both places afterward?

  1. sync — an exact mirror, including deletions, is exactly what sync does. Run it with --dry-run or --interactive first, since it can delete files.
  2. move — moves the files and removes them from your laptop only after the transfer to the cloud succeeds.
  3. copy — adds and updates files at the destination without deleting anything at either end.

See the Learner Reference page for a full command and documentation reference.

Key Points
  • Different ways to move or copy files: copy, sync, move
  • Understand the difference between copy and sync
  • sync is the only one of the three that can delete files at the destination