Moving Folders And Multiple Files - Python Imports Not Refactoring

[RealTachyon]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

When moving a folder within a python workspace to another location, all the modules that reference relative imports to another location outside the folder are not automatically updated.

The automatic update behavior is only executed when a single file is moved at once.

The same breaking behavior can be observed when multiple (2 or more) files are moved at the same time to a new folder.

Original structure:
As a screenshot

As a zip
parent_folder.zip

Correct behavior

Moving a single file

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Write out the structure that's given in the screenshot. (You can also find it as an attachment to this post.)
2. Drag and drop the "animal.py" file into the "new_source_module" folder.
3. Observe that the imports in the "human.py" are correctly updated to reflect the new location.
   The import line changed from
   from ..source_modules.animal import Animal
   to
   from ..new_source_modules.animal import Animal

Problematic behavior

Moving folders

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Write out the structure that's given in the screenshot. (You can also find it as an attachment to this post.)
2. Drag and drop the "source_modules" folder into the "new_source_module" folder.
3. Observe that the imports in the "human.py" are not updated to reflect the new locations.

Moving multiple files

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Write out the structure that's given in the screenshot. (You can also find it as an attachment to this post.)
2. Drag and drop the "animal.py" and "toy.py" files into the "new_source_module" folder.
3. Observe that the imports in the "human.py" are not updated to reflect the new locations.

See also the issue here

Diagnostic data

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

2025-03-17 13:41:41.574 [info] Experiment 'pythonRecommendTensorboardExt' is active
2025-03-17 13:41:41.575 [info] Experiment 'pythonTerminalEnvVarActivation' is active
2025-03-17 13:41:41.575 [info] Experiment 'pythonTestAdapter' is active
2025-03-17 13:41:41.575 [info] Native locator: Refresh started
2025-03-17 13:41:41.575 [info] > pyenv which python
2025-03-17 13:41:41.575 [info] cwd: .
2025-03-17 13:41:42.684 [info] Poetry environment manager found at: C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Scripts\poetry.exe
2025-03-17 13:41:42.763 [info] Python interpreter path: ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\python.exe
2025-03-17 13:41:43.690 [info] Native locator: Refresh finished in 9555 ms
2025-03-17 13:41:53.726 [info] Starting Pylance language server.
2025-03-17 13:43:53.296 [info] > conda info --json
2025-03-17 13:59:12.530 [info] Discover tests for workspace name: playground_2 - uri: l:\Programming\Python\Projects\Experiments\playground_2\refactoring_test\source_stuff\toy.py
2025-03-17 13:59:20.428 [info] Discover tests for workspace name: playground_2 - uri: l:\Programming\Python\Projects\Experiments\playground_2\refactoring_test\target_stuff\human.py
2025-03-17 13:59:22.064 [info] Discover tests for workspace name: playground_2 - uri: l:\Programming\Python\Projects\Experiments\playground_2\refactoring_test\target_stuff\human.py
2025-03-17 15:51:17.950 [info] Discover tests for workspace name: undefined - uri: c:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json
2025-03-17 15:54:37.547 [info] Experiment 'pythonRecommendTensorboardExt' is active
2025-03-17 15:54:37.547 [info] Experiment 'pythonTerminalEnvVarActivation' is active
2025-03-17 15:54:37.547 [info] Experiment 'pythonTestAdapter' is active
2025-03-17 15:54:37.547 [info] Native locator: Refresh started
2025-03-17 15:54:37.564 [info] > pyenv which python
2025-03-17 15:54:37.564 [info] cwd: .
2025-03-17 15:54:38.048 [info] Poetry environment manager found at: C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Scripts\poetry.exe
2025-03-17 15:54:38.051 [info] Python interpreter path: ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\python.exe
2025-03-17 15:54:38.125 [info] Native locator: Refresh finished in 640 ms
2025-03-17 15:54:38.797 [info] Starting Pylance language server.

Extension version: 2025.2.0
VS Code version: Code 1.98.2 (ddc367ed5c8936efe395cffeec279b04ffd7db78, 2025-03-12T13:32:45.399Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045
Modes:

• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.13.1
• Type of virtual environment used (e.g. conda, venv, virtualenv, etc.): System
• Value of the python.languageServer setting: Default

User Settings

languageServer: "Pylance"

Installed Extensions

Extension Name	Extension Id	Version
debugpy	ms-	2025.4.1
js-debug	ms-	1.97.1
js-debug-companion	ms-	1.1.3
python	ms-	2025.2.0
vscode-js-profile-table	ms-	1.0.10
vscode-pylance	ms-	2025.3.2

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX 24-Core Processor (48 x 2994)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	95.88GB (53.22GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 0f924fbb-88c9-44bf-bd09-f8e30396fdf9 --crash-reporter-id 0f924fbb-88c9-44bf-bd09-f8e30396fdf9
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

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