Could not remove the folder [Folder name].
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Error removing file: Directory not empty
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I tried to delete these folders from terminal with:
rm -r
Did you try sudo rm -r
.
What kind of files are there?
You could also delete all the files first then delete the folder. It's extra work, but sometimes it is worth it to get the job done.
sudo
is for superuser actions.
Try cd
into the directory, then remove all files using rm -rf *
. Then try going out of the directory and use rmdir
to delete the directory.
I had this issue with a folder on a btrfs filesystem. Checking mount points and lsof are the normal things to look for. In my case it was corruption caused by an old bug, since fixed:
In the case of corruption where it cannot easily be fixed, the basic workaround is to back up, format the filesystem, and then restore (leaving out the bad data). Depending on how much data you have in the filesystem, this can be a chore. :-/
In my case the problem folder was inside a subvolume so I was able to do the above but by deleting only the subvolume instead of the entire filesystem. I backed up my data and deleted the subvolume: btrfs sub del <subvolume-path>. I was then able to restore into a new subvolume, leaving out the problem folder.
The cause in my case was found to be corruption of i_size, where it was non-zero. Btrfs uses the i_size to tell whether or not the folder is empty. To check on this, run:
stat -c %s <foldername>
The i_size of an empty folder in btrfs should be zero. In ext it is typically 4k.
https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Problem_FAQ#I_cannot_delete_an_empty_directory
Try
sudo rm -rf [Folder name]
If it still displays "Directory not empty" that means that the directory is being used. Try to close it or check which program is using it then re-use the command.
Worked for me when I was trying to delete the Unity project and it was used by unity hub. simply closed unity hub and rewrote the command worked fine.
Go to the folder right before the one you want to delete and execute this command changing foldername by the name of your folder: rm -rf foldername
R means recursive, and f means force.
rm
and not rmdir
? Did the verbose (-v) give you any clues? Also, are there any 0 byte files within your directory? "rm -r -f -v Wan\ Pisu\ -\ New\ World/ removed 'Wan Pisu - New World/test.test' removed directory: 'Wan Pisu - New World'"
Mar 28, 2013 at 16:53
Error; 0x-----
cannot delete also. -v
is explaining what is being done I know rm --help
I have folders in Windows that are mounted to an Ubuntu VirtualBox virtual machine (VM). I could not remove them from the Windows file manager, or from inside the VM using rmdir
or rm -Rf *
.
TLDR: I was finally able to remove them in Git Bash (in Windows, of course), using rm -Rf *
.
When I tried to delete in Windows file manager, it said I needed Administrator priveleges to delete the folders. But, even as Admin, it still failed.
From within the Ubuntu VM (where I have never had problems removing shared files before), I got the error cannot remove protocol error
, as well as some others.
Finally, in Git Bash in Windows, I was able to delete the folders. I'm guessing that Git Bash had some sort of lock on the folders. In Git Bash, my working directory was one of the ones I was trying to delete. I backed out of it and then deleted it using rm -Rf
without any error.
Try: rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty *directory*
If you don't have write permissions set, you cannot remove the directory.
In the below example even though I am an owner of the directory I cannot remove it. Once I add write permissions with chmod
everything succeeds.
DIR:/xieerqi
skolodya@ubuntu:$ ls -dl TESTDIR/
dr-xr-xr-x 2 xieerqi xieerqi 4096 Jan 24 16:06 TESTDIR//
DIR:/xieerqi
skolodya@ubuntu:$ rm -rf TESTDIR/
rm: cannot remove ‘TESTDIR/one & two’: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove ‘TESTDIR/tom&jerry’: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove ‘TESTDIR/jekyl&hide’: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove ‘TESTDIR/pdfReader.sh’: Permission denied
DIR:/xieerqi
skolodya@ubuntu:$ chmod +w TESTDIR/
DIR:/xieerqi
skolodya@ubuntu:$ rm -rf TESTDIR/
DIR:/xieerqi
skolodya@ubuntu:$ echo $?
0
rm -r
from terminal? Have you tried with the answers of this post?rm -rf
insteadrm -Rf
for remove recursively directories, may be this work for you. The uppercase R means Recursive, see man pagesman rm
ls -la
and paste it here to discard this option.Directory not empty
but its all empty promise. On windows it says errorError x00000