How to delete a File from SharePoint Document Library using PowerShell?

Requirement: Delete a file from SharePoint document library using PowerShell

PowerShell to delete a file from document library:

At times, you may have to delete a particular file from a library. In one of my cases, as part of a deployment, before copying certain files, I had to check whether the particular file exists already in a document library, if yes, I must delete that particular file.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variables for processing
$WebURL = "https://intranet.crescent.com"
$ListName = "Documents"
$FileName="sharepoint databases v1.pptx"

#Get Web, List and List Item of the File
$Web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL
$List = $Web.Lists[$ListName]
$ListItem = $List.Items | Where {$_["Name"] -eq $FileName}

If($ListItem -ne $NULL)
{
    #Delete the file
    $ListItem.File.Delete()
    Write-Host "File has been Deleted!" -f Green
}
else
{
    Write-Host "File Not Found!" -f Yellow
}

How to Delete a file from URL using PowerShell?

Instead of file name, lets delete a file using its URL.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

#Variables for processing
$WebURL = "https://intranet.crescent.com"
$FileRelativeURL="/Shared Documents/sharepoint databases v1.pptx"

Try { 
    #Get Web and File
    $Web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL
    $File = $Web.GetFile($FileRelativeURL)

    If($File.Exists -eq $true)
    {
        #Delete the file using PowerShell
        $File.Delete()

        Write-Host "File has been Deleted!" -f Green
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "File Not Found!" -f Yellow
    }
}
Catch {
        write-host -f Red "Error deleting file !" $_.Exception.Message
}

An alternate approach to delete a document from SharePoint document library :
You can also delete a file using its Item ID. Here is how:

$List.Items.DeleteItemById($ListItem.Id)

This PowerShell script deletes file from library in SharePoint. Here is my another post: SharePoint Online: PowerShell CSOM to delete file

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

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