Please create a new thread for distinct questions, instead of bumping an older, resolved thread. As to your question, the error is clear as is the documentation, quoted below: """ Spooling Directory Source This source lets you ingest data by placing files to be ingested into a “spooling” directory on disk. This source will watch the specified directory for new files, and will parse events out of new files as they appear. The event parsing logic is pluggable. After a given file has been fully read into the channel, it is renamed to indicate completion (or optionally deleted). Unlike the Exec source, this source is reliable and will not miss data, even if Flume is restarted or killed. In exchange for this reliability, only immutable, uniquely-named files must be dropped into the spooling directory. Flume tries to detect these problem conditions and will fail loudly if they are violated: If a file is written to after being placed into the spooling directory, Flume will print an error to its log file and stop processing. If a file name is reused at a later time, Flume will print an error to its log file and stop processing. """ - https://archive.cloudera.com/cdh5/cdh/5/flume-ng/FlumeUserGuide.html#spooling-directory-source It appears that you can get around this by using ExecSource with a script or command that reads the files, but you'll have to sacrifice reliability. It may be instead worth investing in an approach that makes filenames unique (`uuidgen` named softlinks in another folder, etc.) ... View more