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SharePoint Online: Check If a Folder Exists using PowerShell

February 27, 2023 Salaudeen Rajack 1 Comment powershell sharepoint online check if folder exists, sharepoint online check if folder exists, sharepoint online csom check if folder exists, sharepoint online powershell check if folder exists

Requirement: Check if a folder exists in the SharePoint Online document library.

Check If Folder Exists in SharePoint Online using PowerShell

SharePoint Online: PowerShell to Check If Folder Exists

When Working with SharePoint Online PowerShell scripts, you may need to determine if a folder exists in SharePoint Online before creating a new folder or deleting an existing folder. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use PowerShell to quickly check if a folder exists in SharePoint Online!

Here is the PowerShell for SharePoint Online to check if a folder exists:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

#Function to check if folder Exists
Function Check-SPOFolderExists()
{
  param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $FolderRelativeURL
    )
    Try {
        #Get Credentials to connect
        $Cred= Get-Credential
        $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
 
        #Setup the context
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials

        #Get the Web
        $Web = $Ctx.Web
        $Ctx.Load($Web)
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

        #Check Folder Exists
        Try { 
            $Folder = $Web.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl($FolderRelativeURL)
            $Ctx.Load($Folder)
            $Ctx.ExecuteQuery() 

            Write-host -f Green "Folder Exists!"
        }
        Catch {
            Write-host -f Yellow "Folder Doesn't Exist!"
        }        
    }
    Catch {
        write-host -f Red "Error Checking Folder Exists!" $_.Exception.Message
    }
}
 
#Set parameter values
$SiteURL="https://crescent.sharepoint.com/"
$FolderRelativeURL="/Shared Documents/2018"

#Call the function 
Check-SPOFolderExists -SiteURL $SiteURL -FolderRelativeURL $FolderRelativeURL

Alternatively, you can use the other method used in my other article: SharePoint Online: Create a Folder using PowerShell

PnP PowerShell to Check if a folder exists in SharePoint Online

The PnP PowerShell way to check whether a folder exists or not in the given location goes here:

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Operations"
$FolderURL = "/sites/Operations/Shared Documents/Classifieds" #Server Relative URL

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive

#Try to Get the Folder 
$Folder = Get-PnPFolder -Url $FolderURL -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#sharepoint online powershell To check if folder exists
If($Folder -ne $null)
{
    Write-Host -f Green "Folder exists!"
}
Else
{
    Write-Host -f Yellow "Folder does not exists!"
}

Alright, the above two scripts check whether the given folder exists in the specified URL. How about checking if a folder has a specific sub-folder in SharePoint Online?

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Operations"
$ParentFolderURL = "/Shared Documents" #Site Relative URL
$FolderName = "Classified"

Try{
    #Connect to PnP Online
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive

    #Try to Get the Folder from given parent folder
    $Folder = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $ParentFolderURL -ItemType Folder -ItemName $FolderName

    #Powershell To check if folder exists
    If($Folder -ne $null)
    {
        Write-Host -f Green "Folder exists!"
    }
    Else
    {
        Write-Host -f Yellow "Folder does not exists!"
    }
}
catch {
    write-host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor Red
}

How to check if a Document Library has a specific Folder or not using PowerShell?

The script below checks if the given document library has a specific folder (at its root level).

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Operations"
$LibraryName = "Documents"
$FolderName = "Classified"

Try{
    #Connect to PnP Online
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive

    #Try to Get the Folder from document library
    $Folder = Get-PnPFolder -List $ListName | Select -ExpandProperty Name | Where {$_.Name -eq $FolderName}

    # check if folder exists in the document library - ONLY AT ROOT LEVEL
    If($Folder -ne $null)
    {
        Write-Host -f Green "Folder exists!"
    }
    Else
    {
        Write-Host -f Yellow "Folder does not exists!"
    }
}
catch {
    write-host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor Red
}

This article shows that we can use PowerShell to determine if a folder exists in SharePoint Online. Using these steps, you can easily verify whether a folder already exists in a document library or list before creating it or verify that a specific folder has been deleted.

What if you want to create a new folder if it doesn’t exist? To create a folder in SharePoint Online using PowerShell, refer: How to create a New Folder in SharePoint Online with PowerShell?

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

One thought on “SharePoint Online: Check If a Folder Exists using PowerShell”

raj kumar
February 24, 2021 at 11:03 PM
Permalink

is there a way to use this script to loop through all the list of site URLS that we can input using CSV file?
Reply

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