CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellwindows-server-2012-r2
HelloWorld
HelloWorld

Reputation: 4882

Cannot remove item. The directory is not empty

I am trying to delete a folder with subfolders/files.

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path $directoryPath

I am getting the error Cannot remove item. The directory is not empty.

My PowershellScript.ps1 has executionPolicy unrestricted. The root folder I try to delete with the current logged in user has full permission on this folder.

On my local pc the code works but not on my Windows Server 2012 R2.

Upvotes: 72

Views: 147879

Answers (5)

Nick Daniels
Nick Daniels

Reputation: 922

This way works every time, it sorts the files and directories in descending order to ensure the deepest members of the directory structure are deleted first.

Get-ChildItem $output_path -File -Recurse | Sort-Object FullName -Descending | Remove-Item -Force -Confirm:$false;
Get-ChildItem $output_path -Directory -Recurse | Sort-Object FullName -Descending | Remove-Item -Force -Confirm:$false;
Remove-Item $output_path -Force;

Upvotes: 2

Nick.Mc
Nick.Mc

Reputation: 19184

Note that

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "C:\MyFolder"

Produces this error, but

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "C:\MyFolder\*"

Does not.

So don't forget the magic sauce

Upvotes: 8

Vibhu Bhatnagar
Vibhu Bhatnagar

Reputation: 1

this worked for me where i deleted files and folders older then i year recursively including folders.

Get-ChildItem -Directory -Path X:\AutomateCache | where-Object {$_.Lastwritetime -ile (get-date).AddMonths(-12) } | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Verbose

Upvotes: 0

Richard
Richard

Reputation: 7000

You could try the following:

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "$directoryPath\*"

Note when using the -Recurse parameter with -Include in Remove-Item, it can be unreliable. So it's best to recurse the files first with Get-ChildItem and then pipe into Remove-Item. This may also help if you deleting large folder structures.

Get-ChildItem $directoryPath -Recurse | Remove-Item -Force

Upvotes: 93

Kellen Stuart
Kellen Stuart

Reputation: 8893

File is open in another program

I forgot that I had Visual Studio open with my project open and was getting this error.

Close any files associated with that directory, run PowerShell as admin, then run the command:

Remove-Item "C:\path\to\dir" -Recurse -Force

Pro Tip

You can also run this command to open file explorer:

ii "C:\path\to\dir"

If you right click and try to delete it, it might give you a more verbose error than command line.

Upvotes: 15

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