How to solve “The directory is not empty” error when running rmdir command in a batch script?

Question

I am making a batch script and part of the script is trying to remove a directory and all of its sub-directories. I am getting an intermittent error about a sub-directory not be

Answer 1

I just encountered the same problem and it had to do with some files being lost or corrupted. To correct the issue, just run check disk:

chkdsk /F e:

This can be run from the search windows box or from a cmd prompt. The /F fixes any issues it finds, like recovering the files. Once this finishes running, you can delete the files and folders like normal.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem, tried to delete an empty folder via windows explorer. Showed me the not empty error, so I thought I try it via admin cmd, but none of the answers here helped.

After I moved a file into the empty folder. I was able to delete the non empty folder

Answer 3

Im my case i just moved the folder to root directory like so.

move <source directory> c:\

And then ran the command to remove the directory

rmdir c:\<moved directory> /s /q

Answer 4

I had "C:\Users\User Name\OneDrive\Fonts", which was mklink'ed ( /D ) to "C:\Windows\Fonts", and I got the same problem. In my case

cd "C:\Users\User Name\OneDrive"

rd /s Fonts

Y (to confirm the action)

helped me. I hope, that it helps you too ;D

Answer 5

What worked for me is the following. I appears like the RMDir command will issue “The directory is not empty” nearly all the time...

:Cleanup_Temporary_Files_and_Folders

Erase /F /S /Q C:\MyDir

RMDir /S /Q C:\MyDir
If  Exist  C:\MyDir  GoTo Cleanup_Temporary_Files_and_Folders

Answer 6

I experienced the same issues as Harry Johnston has mentioned. rmdir /s /q would complain that a directory was not empty even though /s is meant to do the emptying for you! I think it's a bug in Windows, personally.

My workaround is to del everything in the directory before deleting the directory itself:

del /f /s /q mydir 1>nul
rmdir /s /q mydir

(The 1>nul hides the standard output of del because otherwise, it lists every single file it deletes.)