SharePoint Online - Clear All Empty Folders

Question

I have a client whose SharePoint Online is a little out of control with respect to Empty folders. I was looking for any suggestions on methods to search for, then delete all empty folders? I assume there is Powershell scripting which can take care of this? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Hi @J.P. Lesser ,

We can find empty folders in SharePoint Online from the web user interface by using Item Child Count and Folder Child Count .

1. Navigate to the document library >> Click on “Edit Current View” from the Views drop-down.
2. Select “Folder Child Count” and “Item Child Count” columns and Click on OK.

PnP PowerShell to Delete Empty Folders in SharePoint Online:

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$DocumentLibraryName = "Documents"
  
#Connect to the Site
Connect-PnPOnline -URL $SiteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)
 
#Get the web & folder
$Web = Get-PnPWeb
$List = Get-PnPList -Identity $DocumentLibraryName -Includes RootFolder
 
Function Delete-PnPEmptyFolder([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Folder]$Folder)
{
    $FolderSiteRelativeURL = $Folder.ServerRelativeUrl.Substring($Web.ServerRelativeUrl.Length+1)
    #Process all Sub-Folders
    $SubFolders = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType Folder
    Foreach($SubFolder in $SubFolders)
    {
        #Exclude "Forms" and Hidden folders
        If(($SubFolder.Name -ne "Forms") -and (-Not($SubFolder.Name.StartsWith("_"))))
        {
            #Call the function recursively
            Delete-PnPEmptyFolder -Folder $SubFolder
        }
    }
    #Get all files & Reload Sub-folders from the given Folder
    $Files = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType File
    $SubFolders = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType Folder
 
    If ($Files.Count -eq 0 -and $SubFolders.Count -eq 0)
    {
        #Delete the folder
        $ParentFolder = Get-PnPProperty -ClientObject $Folder -Property ParentFolder
        $ParentFolderURL = $ParentFolder.ServerRelativeUrl.Substring($Web.ServerRelativeUrl.Length+1)   
        Remove-PnPFolder -Name $Folder.Name -Folder $ParentFolderURL -Force -Recycle
        Write-Host -f Green ("Deleted Folder: '{0}' at '{1}'" -f $Folder.Name, $Folder.ServerRelativeURL)
    }
 
}
#Call the Function to Delete empty Folders
Delete-PnPEmptyFolder $List.RootFolder

Remember to replace the variable $SiteURL, *$*DocumentLibraryName with your own.

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Answer 2

Same issue Connect-PnPOnline : The term 'Connect-PnPOnline' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:9 char:1

• Connect-PnPOnline -URL $SiteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)

•     + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Connect-PnPOnline:String) [], CommandNotFoundExcep 
     tion
      + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
   
  

Get-PnPWeb : The term 'Get-PnPWeb' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:12 char:8

• $Web = Get-PnPWeb

•    ~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Get-PnPWeb:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Get-PnPList : The term 'Get-PnPList' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:13 char:9

• $List = Get-PnPList -Identity $DocumentLibraryName -Includes RootFold ...

•     ~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Get-PnPList:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Unable to find type [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Folder]. At line:15 char:32

• ... on Delete-PnPEmptyFolder([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Folder]$Folder)

•                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Folder:TypeName) [], RuntimeException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : TypeNotFound