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Copilot AI commented Jan 16, 2026

Thanks for assigning this issue to me. I'm starting to work on it and will keep this PR's description up to date as I form a plan and make progress.

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>The file to paste has been deleted or moved. No actually, the target already exists.</issue_title>
<issue_description>

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

Codespace:

  • VS Code Version: 1.86.0-insider
    • Commit: 8172579
    • Embedder: codespaces
  • OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04.6

I have the same issue locally using VSCodium:

  • Version: 1.86.2.24053
  • OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04.6

Issue

Contradictory error message when cutting-pasting a file and the target already exists:

The file(s) to paste have been deleted or moved since you copied them. Unable to move/copy 'path' because target 'new path' already exists at destination.

Just to make sure I'm interpreting this correctly, I'm understanding "deleted or moved" to mean that path no longer exists, which is not the case. Although, maybe that's what's happening under the hood and this error is leaking a detail of the "cut" implementation.

Steps to Reproduce:

Setup for this example:

  1. Create folder some-folder
  2. Create file some-file in project root
  3. Copy some-file into some-folder (or otherwise create some-file in some-folder)

To get error:

  1. Cut some-file from project root

  2. Try to paste into some-folder

  3. Error occurs:

    The file(s) to paste have been deleted or moved since you copied them. Unable to move/copy 'repo path/some-file' because target 'repo path/some-folder/some-file' already exists at destination.

Expected behavior

Either:

  • A clearer error, e.g.

    Target already exists. Unable to move/copy 'repo path/some-file' because 'repo path/some-folder/some-file' already exists at destination.

  • A dialog like you get when dragging and dropping some-file into some-folder:

    A file or folder with the name 'some-file' already exists in the destination folder. Do you want to replace it?

Screenshots

error on codespace

Additional context

No error when copy-pasting. Instead, target is renamed: some-file copy.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

@lramos15 > Please stop replying that it isn't fixed. If it were fixed, the issue would be closed. I get notifications for all comments, and they're pointless.

Agreed

Instead, upvote this bug report. That can help in case it ever gets sent to "Backlog Candidates" (ref). And if you can, help with the bug by digging into the code and seeing where/how/why the problem occurs.

Bugs never get sent to backlog candidates, only feature requests. We aim to fix all bug reports, but there is a lot of them and only so many members on the team. I have not forgotten about this</comment_new>


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The file to paste has been deleted or moved. No actually, the target already exists.

2 participants