I’m trying to trap errors using a try/catch block with Get-Childitem but it isn’t working. Here is an excerpt of my code:

if((Test-Path .test.txt)){
    $key = Get-Content -Path .test.txt
} else {
  write-host "test.txt file not found in current folder. Searching for it in other folders." -ForegroundColor DarkCyan
  try {
        $key = @(gci -path $env:USERPROFILE -file test.txt -Recurse -ErrorVariable ers )[0]  
      } catch [System.UnauthorizedAccessException]{ 
        write-warning -Message "Folder offlimits" 
      } catch [RuntimeException]{
        write-warning -Message "Some other error occured"  
      } finally {
        write-host $key.FullName
      }
            
}

I know I can just use -erroraction silentlycontinue but I’m really just trying to figure out how to trap the error. I tried using $error[0].Exception.gettype().fullname to determine what the error was to trap it but I used what it returned and it didn’t trap it. I don’t want to use -filter or -include/exclude because there are just too many of them.

and $ers is:

    gci : Access to the path 'C:UserSearchData' is denied.
At line:6 char:26
+ ...    $key = @(gci -path $env:USERPROFILE -file test.txt -Recurse  -Error ...
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (C:UserSearchData:String) [Get-ChildItem], UnauthorizedAccessException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DirUnauthorizedAccessError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand

which is the same thing $error[0] contains. I’m using 5.6.1 right now but I’m transitioning to 7. This is on Windows 10 if that matters. I’m stumped. Any thoughts?