Python Cannot Find File Specified

Question

I am trying to rename a file, but python cannot find the file specified.

I have a file located here:

C:\Users\my_username\Desktop\selenium_downloads\close_of_day_reports\close-of-day-2022-04-24-2022-04-23.pdf

I am trying to rename the file to test.pdf

Here is the code I am using:

import os

os.rename(
     src = "C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\close-of-day-2022-04-24-2022-04-23.pdf",
     dst = "C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\test.pdf"

)

The error message I am getting is:

FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified: 'C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\close-of-day-2022-04-24-2022-04-23.pdf' -> 

'C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\test.pdf'

What am I doing wrong?

Edit #1:

• The original file was not deleted, it still exists.
• It's really strange, when I run it the first time, the file does not get renamed, but when I run it again, it does.
• Weird, for some reason it works in Python Shell, but not my Python file.

Edit #2:

I am using Selenium to download the file. When I comment the part of my code out that downloads the file from Selenium, my os.rename code works fine. Weird.

Answer 1

Found the solution:

When you download files using Selenium, you need to put in a sleep method for a few seconds and then you can download/move files without a problem.

Put this in your code after downloading the file, before downloading another:

from time import sleep
sleep(10)
pass

You may need to increase the sleep value, but 10 worked for me. The number inside of sleep represents seconds, so sleep(10) means to wait 10 seconds.

Answer 2

Careful reading is your friend. Computers don't know or care what you meant:

FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified: 'C:\Users\my_usernamer\Desktop\selenium_downloads\close_of_day_reports\close-of-day-2022-04-24-2022-04-23.pdf'

See the stray r in the path?

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure you ran the code once, renamed the file, and now it won't run again because you already renamed it.

Answer 4

Based off the error, I think you are still leaving one the original name or not changing the right one.

import os

os.rename(
     src = "C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\test.pdf",
     dst = "C:\\Users\\my_username\\Desktop\\selenium_downloads\\close_of_day_reports\\close-of-day-2022-04-24-2022-04-23.pdf"

)