Cannot remove item. The directory is not empty

Question

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

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path $directoryPath

I am getting the error Cannot remo

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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   

Answer 3

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