How to Delete node_modules - Deep Nested Folder in Windows

Question

Upon trying to remove the node_modules directory created by npm install:

The source file name(s) are larger than is su

Answer 1

I had a similar problem and RD didn't work, for some unknown reason.

NPM can get rid of its own mess though, so if you do npm uninstall [module-name] for each directory in node_modules, you'll get rid of them.

(I'll look up how to batch loop this later, for those who have lots of dependencies.)

Answer 2

You can use Git Bash to remove the folder:

example: c:\users\olefrank\projects\mynodeproject

rm -rf /c/users/olefrank/projects/mynodeproject

Answer 3

Tried everything but didn't work. All the above methods did nothing. At last I was able to delete via VSCode.

1. Just Open your root folder with VSCode.
2. Select node_modules folder and delete.
3. Profit. (It will take few milliseconds to delete.)

Answer 4

I'm on windows 10 and I could'nt delete folders with message "directory not emtpy". Neither rimraf nor rm -rf worked.

Copying an empty text file to every single folder did the trick - I was able to delete the complete node_modules folder.

Answer 5

Delete Deep Netsted Folder like node_modules in Windows

1. Option 1

   Delete using rimraf NPM package

   • Open command prompt and change your directory to the folder where node_modules folder exists.

   • Run

     rimraf node_modules

   • Missing rimraf ERROR then Install

     npm install rimraf -g

   • When the installation completes, run

     rimraf node_modules

2. Option 2:

   Detele without installing anything

   • Create a folder with name test in any Drive

     robocopy /MIR c:\test D:\UserData\FolderToDelete > NUL

   • delete the folder test and FolderToDelete as both are empty

Why this is an issue in windows?

One of the deep nested folder structure is node_modules, Windows can’t delete the folder as its name is too long. To solve this, Easy solution, install a node module RimRaf

Answer 6

I think this was not mentioned before. but the best way to delete unwanted node_modules is to install an utility called npmkill.

Installation:

From your terminal:

npm i -g npkill

And to use it:

From your terminal:

npkill

You will then be presented with a list of projects, and by hitting space bar you can delete their node_modules.