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Refactor "Move to a new file" does not honor explicit file extensions #52886

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Description

@birgersp

Type: Bug

When working on a ESM project, file extensions of imported paths need to be "explicit". In other words you need to write e.g. import * from "./somefile.js" (notice the .js at the end).

When the cursor is at a type or class, open the refactor menu (Ctrl+Shift+R) and select "Move to a new file".

image

Notice how the file then is automatically imported:

image

This will only be a valid import if the --moduleResolution is not set to node16 or nodenext. When you are working on a ESM project, you'll get the following compiler error:

Relative import paths need explicit file extensions in EcmaScript imports when '--moduleResolution' is 'node16' or 'nodenext'. Did you mean './MyClass.js'?

System info (generated from "Report Issue" button in VSCode):

VS Code version: Code 1.74.3 (97dec172d3256f8ca4bfb2143f3f76b503ca0534, 2023-01-09T16:57:40.428Z)
OS version: Linux x64 6.0.12-76060006-generic
Modes:
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Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.4.0-131-generic

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Activity

  1. vscodenpa commented on Feb 9, 2023

    @vscodenpa

    Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.75.0. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

    Happy Coding!

  2. birgersp commented on Feb 9, 2023

    @birgersp
    Author

    Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.75.0. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

    Happy Coding!

    No thank you, I'm waiting for 1.75.1. The issue also exists in newer versions of code.

  3. mjbvz commented on Feb 9, 2023

    @mjbvz
    Contributor

    Have you tried setting "javascript.preferences.importModuleSpecifierEnding": "js"?

  4. birgersp commented on Feb 10, 2023

    @birgersp
    Author

    I just tried it (them) now. This is a snippet from my settings.json:

    	"typescript.preferences.importModuleSpecifierEnding": "js",
    	"javascript.preferences.importModuleSpecifierEnding": "js",
    	"typescript.updateImportsOnFileMove.enabled": "always",
    

    (Idk if the last line is relevant but I figured it might be)

    The result is the same. Also tried restarting VSCode to be sure that the settings are applied.

    I suspect these two settings are not considered when doing the refactor, only when doing "auto-import".

  5. removed their assignment
    on Feb 21, 2023
  6. birgersp commented on Apr 19, 2023

    @birgersp
    Author

    Idk when this was fixed, but in VSCode 1.77.3 this is no longer an issue

    Thank you!

  7. locked as resolved and limited conversation to collaborators on Oct 22, 2025
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    BugA bug in TypeScriptDomain: LS: Refactoringse.g. extract to constant or function, rename symbolHelp WantedYou can do this

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