I am using RollingFileAppender with TimeBasedRollingPolicy. I'd like backup files to be saved in a different folder than the current one. The problem I am having, is that it only works when destination directory of backup files is already created. When backup directory does not exists, then rollover is skipped. I debugged code and realized that the problem may be solved if the backup folder is created in FileRenameAction Just change the method execute in FileRenameAction to: public static boolean execute( final File source, final File destination, boolean renameEmptyFiles) { if (renameEmptyFiles || (source.length() > 0)) { File destinationParent = destination.getParentFile(); if (!destinationParent.exists()) { destinationParent.mkdirs(); } return source.renameTo(destination); } return source.delete(); }