# Recursive delete

**URL:** <https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [January 10, 2007, 5:50am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805 "2007-01-10T05:50:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stevage](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@stevage](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/stevage)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 5:50am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/1 "2007-01-10T05:50:52Z")

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You can: - Delete a directory and its contents, and optionally subdirectories and their contents, with “Delete directory” - Delete the contents of a directory, with "Delete File(s)"You can’t: - Delete the contents of a directory, and all subdirectories and their contents, without removing the directory itself.Perhaps a “recursive” option on “Delete File(s)”? I request this as the “Delete directory” very often seems to fail, complaining that some process is using the directory.Steve

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**Author:** ![deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/deleted_user/32/937_2.png) [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/2 "2007-01-10T10:36:51Z")

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Steve,  
  
I see this issue a lot too. I don’t know if it’s a FB issue or Windows issue, but to work around it I set the repeat to 3 and the time to 1000ms between trys. My guess is that the process that is queueing up the files to be deleted is running faster than the process that is closing handles/references for those files, or something like that.  
  
  
And to the FB Team:  
Here’s a related issue, 100% reproducable:  
Open a solution in Visual Studio  
Use Final Builder to delete the directory  
The directory becomes a “zombie” - you can’t browse it, rename it, delete it or anything. It acts like it’s not even there. But if you try to create another directory with the same name, it will fail. The only way to fix this is to reboot and the directory will be gone. Again I don’t know that this is a an FB issue or a windows issue.

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**Author:** ![stevage](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@stevage](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/stevage)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/3 "2007-01-11T02:45:49Z")

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Nice workaround, I’ll try that!  
  
Steve

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**Author:** ![svannemreddi](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@svannemreddi](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/svannemreddi)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/4 "2014-02-13T08:29:10Z")

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I am repeating 3 times still this action failing- can someone give any other suggestion?

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**Author:** ![Vincent](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/vincent/32/938_2.png) [@Vincent](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/Vincent)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/5 "2014-02-14T12:52:57Z")

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What is the error reported? It’s difficult to help with so little information.

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**Author:** ![stefan](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@stefan](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/stefan)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:51am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/recursive-delete/3805/6 "2014-09-02T05:51:36Z")

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I am also facing this problem from time to time. The error is “Access denied” as if someone still has a handle open to the directory.