How to Move a File in Python

Using os Module

The os.rename() method renames the file or directory src to dst. If dst exists, the operation will fail with an OSError subclass in a number of cases:

#!/usr/bin/python3

# Import module
import os

os.rename("file.txt", "file.1.txt")

os.replace("file.1.txt", "file.txt")

file.1.txt

Using shutil.move Method

Recursively move a file or directory (src) to another location (dst) and return the destination.

#!/usr/bin/python3

# Import module
import shutil

shutil.move("file.txt", "file.1.txt")

file.1.txt

Using pathlib Module

After Python 3.4, you can also use pathlib's class Path to move file.

#!/usr/bin/python3

# Import module
import pathlib

pathlib.Path("file.txt").rename("file.1.txt")

file.1.txt