Selecting files using a path ending with slash is ambiguous. Remove the slash to select the folder. Append * mask to select all files in the folder.

When selecting files for an operation, you have specified a source path like /remote/ (or C:\local\).

For example:

get /remote/ C:\local\

The recommended syntax is either /remote/* (C:\local\*) or /remote (C:\local).

The syntax with * file mask (wildcard) will select files in the directory for the operation.

For example the following code will download all files from the /remote directory to the C:\local directory:

get /remote/* C:\local\

Contrary, the syntax without the file mask (wildcard) and an ending slash (backslash) will select the directory itself for the operation.

For example the following code will download the /remote directory to C:\local directory. It means, the remote will be created as subdirectory of the C:\local directory. The files from /remote will be downloaded to the C:\local\remote.

get /remote C:\local\

The syntax with the ending slash is considered ambiguous. It’s not clear if you wanted to select the directory itself or the files in the directory. WinSCP will behave unpredictably, when you use this syntax. The behavior might change with protocol and path syntax. The behavior may also change in future releases of WinSCP or the format can be banned altogether. Use one the two formats described above, depending on your needs.