Shutil attempts to copy directories that don't exist

[ConsoleGeek]

I'm attempting to copy the Documents folder under the Windows userprofile, the shutil.copytree(documents, destination) works partially. It will copy the Documents to the root of the destination, in this case the R: drive, and it will also attempt to copy the other Windows special folders (My Music, My Pictures, etc..), even if they don't exist under Documents.

import shutil


def main():

   try:

       user_profile = os.getenv("USERPROFILE")

       # Construct a full path to the documents folder 
       documents = Path(user_profile).joinpath("Documents")

       # Destination for the Documents folder
       destination = Path("R:\\Test")

       shutil.copytree(documents, destination)            

   except (FileNotFoundError, shutil.Error) as error:
       print(error)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

This is a excerpt of the exception that is thrown:

[('C:\\Users\\ConsoleGeek\\Documents\\My Music', 'R:\\Test\\My Music', 
"[WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\\\\Users\\\\ConsoleGeek\\\\Documents\\\\My Music'")
...

None of these folders exist under Documents, so I don't fully understand why shutil attempts to copy these special folders. If I attempt to copy a regular folder under the user profile, it works.

I also posted this question on Stack Overflow, but no one has answered.

[Gribouillis]

I don't know the Windows system well enough but you could try calling

shutil.copytree(documents, destination, symlinks=True)

if these 'special folders' are symbolic links (or the Windows equivalent of symbolic links).

[Gribouillis]

I don't fully understand why shutil attempts to copy these special folders

What is the output of

print(os.listdir(documents))

Does it show these folders?

[ConsoleGeek]

print(os.listdir(documents))

Directly from the IDE:

['desktop.ini', 'My Music', 'My Pictures', 'My Videos']

Strange thing to happen, because Documents is empty, even when I enable hidden folders, it's empty. copytree only successfully copies the .ini file. I guess the solution is to use ignore_patterns, check to see if the Documents folder is the item we're working with, and ignore those folders.

[ConsoleGeek]

I don't fully understand why shutil attempts to copy these special folders

What is the output of

print(os.listdir(documents))

Does it show these folders?

I posted a detailed answer on Stack Overflow.

[Gribouillis]

The question seems to be unrelated to Python. It is rather a question about the Windows OS or even a question about the configuration of FileExplorer in Windows: why doesn't it show these folders, which are present?