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Forums Using DNN Platform Administration and Configuration

Cannot Delete Directory in Assets

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JinHow
New Around Here
Posts: 7
New Around Here
1/28/2020 2:57 PM

Hello,

I am fairly new to DNN and have Googled this issue extensively, but had no luck finding any answers. I am having an issue where I get "The directory is not empty" error when trying to delete an empty directory through the "Assets" panel. I have read that this can happen if there are files that are not displayed because of their extension, but I have checked in the database and nothing is associated with these folders. I would prefer not to use SQL to delete these as I am not sure of what all is done behind the scenes with DNN when a directory is deleted through the UI. I have checked the admin logs and found nothing helpful there other than the general exception that was thrown and I also do not believe this to be a permissions issue since I am a host user. Is there anything I can do to delete these folders or at least find out what is supposedly in them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

J.

Joe Craig
Veteran Member
Posts: 1246
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1/28/2020 3:20 PM
Try re-synchronizing the file manager.

If you have access to the server, you can check the file directories directly to make sure that there is nothing there.

I think that you can also just delete the file directories, which will require another re-sync.
muddeatr
Growing Member
Posts: 31
Growing Member
1/29/2020 1:59 PM
Just a thought.

The hidden file thumbs.db is a database file containing a small JPEG representing each of the thumbnails in a folder. They are created automatically in the same directory as the thumbnails being viewed. Because they are hidden it makes the task of deleting these folders very difficult. You must first delete that hidden file but that is not always possible because it is usually in a "write" state that will not allow it to be deleted.
JinHow
New Around Here
Posts: 7
New Around Here
3/17/2020 1:49 PM
Sorry for the late reply. Been a hectic bit over a month. I finally got back to this task and got the folders deleted. Thank you Joe and muddeatr! Your responses fixed the issue. Joe, I deleted and resynced as you recommended. Muddeatr, while the folders were deleting I was prompted to remove files (though it did not list the name here) and while they were deleting I saw that they were indeed the thumbs.db files. Kind of sneaky because I am used to these showing up when you set the file explorer option to show hidden file types. At least it used to in older versions of Windows. It seems they no longer show up even with this setting on.

A big thanks again to you both for your help!
Joe Craig
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3/17/2020 4:33 PM
Yeah, it can be a bit messy. DNN only displays "legal" files in the File Manager / Assets page. Those are files with extensions allowed in the Host Settings.

But, I'm quite happy that you managed to get this done.
Michael Tobisch
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3/18/2020 4:17 AM

There is a way to avoid the creation of thumbs.db (which makes sense on a server ;-)) - see this article.

Happy DNNing!
Michael

Michael Tobisch
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