# Remove all files and subfolders from directory
**URL:** https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755
**Category:** Discussion
**Created:** [February 13, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755 "2008-02-13T12:41:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jehunter](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/jehunter)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/1 "2008-02-13T12:41:45Z")
How do I remove all files and folders from a given directory. I want to clean out an existing IIS directory without removing the root folder. Do I need to iterate over each folder and do a seperate delete tree on it? If so, how do I this?
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### Author:  [@angus](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/angus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/2 "2008-02-14T12:02:53Z")
Hi John,
Thanks for your post. Delete Tree is recursive, so if you use the Delete Directory action with "Delete Tree" then it should get rid of everything.
Regards,
Angus
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### Author:  [@jehunter](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/jehunter)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/3 "2008-02-14T12:54:32Z")
Thanks for the reply, but I think you have missed the question. I do not want to delete the top level folder. I want to delete everything in the top level folder (both files and directories) and still have the top level folder when I am done. How can I do this?
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### Author:  [@angus](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/angus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/4 "2008-02-14T12:59:30Z")
Hi John,
You’re right, I did miss the question. Sorry.
Is deleting the directory and then recreating it an option? That’s probably the simplest solution - Delete Directory then Create Directory.
Regards,
Angus
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### Author:  [@jehunter](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/jehunter)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/5 "2008-02-14T01:31:24Z")
I think it is an option and i will try it that way. I still think it would be nice to have a 'Clear Directory' type of action. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@angus](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/angus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/6 "2008-02-14T02:02:46Z")
I’ll add a recursive option to “Delete Files” to our to-do list, and note that deleting empty directories would be good as well. This would give you the results you’re after.
Regards,
Angus
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### Author:  [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/7 "2011-02-11T03:49:22Z")
Hi, has anyone been able to figure this out? I'd still like to see a way to delete all files and subdirectories within a folder, but not the folder itself.
Deleting the folder and recreating it is not an option because I'd like to retain the security and share permissions on the folder.
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### Author:  [@paulsamways](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/paulsamways)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/8 "2011-02-13T11:37:21Z")
Hi Sameer,
I've attached an example project that deletes all files and sub-directories within a folder.
Regards,
Paul.
[DirectoryCleaner.fbz7](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce1f4ce1de51123635d0d715ddfd2f0b9f040674.fbz7) (2.099 KB)
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### Author:  [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2011, 9:15am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/9 "2011-02-14T09:15:58Z")
Paul, great solution! Thanks so much! Didn’t even look in the iterators section…
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### Author:  [@stpitner](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/stpitner)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/remove-all-files-and-subfolders-from-directory/755/10 "2012-03-08T06:41:53Z")
I’m going to try out the directory cleaner method because I was coming here to report a problem I’d had with doing similar. It “works” to some degree when we tell it to delete tree followed immediately by a command to recreate the directory. However, it frequently fails saying that it can’t make the directory. I don’t know if it’s because it happens too fast or what.
I’m contemplating just having it pause after it executes the delete action, but I’d really rather not. Ideally I wouldn’t have it log every file deleted since it’s well over 1000 files, but perhaps that is something I could try to slow it down. (I’m using FB v 7.0.0.1753)