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SharePoint Online: Bulk Delete Folders from a CSV using PowerShell

Salaudeen Rajack 2 Comments ,

Requirement: Bulk Delete Folders in SharePoint Online.

How to Bulk Delete Multiple Folders in SharePoint Online?

To bulk delete folders with its sub-folders and files, we can use a CSV file with PowerShell script.

#Set Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Projects"
$CSVFilePath = "C:\Users\Thomas\Desktop\BulkDeleteFolders.csv"
  
#Connect to the site
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -UseWebLogin

#Get the data from CSV file
$CSVFile = Import-CSV $CSVFilePath | Sort-Object ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -Descending
  
#Read CSV file and delete each folder
ForEach($Row in $CSVFile)
{
    Try {
        #Check if folder exists
        $Folder  = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemName $Row.FolderName #-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        If($Folder -ne $Null)
        {
            #Delete the folder        
            Remove-PnPFolder -Name $Row.FolderName -Folder $Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -Recycle -Force
            Write-host -f Green "Folder '$($Row.FolderName)' Deleted Successfully from $($Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL)"
        }
        Else
        {
            Write-Host "Folder '$($Row.FolderName)' doesn't exists at $($Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        }
    }
    Catch {
        write-host -f Red "`tError:" $_.Exception.Message
    }
}

Here is my CSV file with a list of folder names and the site relative URL of its parent folder.

SharePoint Online Bulk Delete Folders

You can download the CSV to delete folders from here:

CSV to Bulk Delete Folders in SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online: Can’t Delete Folder with Files?

The above script absolutely works fine when your site is not placed under any retention hold policies. However, you got to delete all files and sub-folders of the folder to avoid the “You have to delete all the items in this folder before you can delete this folder.” error message.

SharePoint Online: PowerShell script to Bulk Delete Folders from a CSV File

This PowerShell script recursively deletes each folder and its contents (files, sub-folders) from the CSV file in a given site.

#Set Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$CSVFilePath = "C:\Users\Thomas\Desktop\BulkDeleteFolders.csv"

#Function to delete all Files and sub-folders from a Folder
Function Empty-PnPFolder($Folder)
{
    #Get the site relative path of the Folder
    If($Folder.Context.Web.ServerRelativeUrl -eq "/")
    {
        $FolderSiteRelativeURL = $Folder.ServerRelativeUrl
    }
    Else
    {        
        $FolderSiteRelativeURL = $Folder.ServerRelativeUrl.Replace($Folder.Context.Web.ServerRelativeURL,[string]::Empty)
    }

    #Delete all files in the Folder
    $Files = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType File
    ForEach ($File in $Files)
    {
        #Delete File
        Remove-PnPFile -ServerRelativeUrl $File.ServerRelativeURL -Force -Recycle
        Write-Host -f Green ("`tDeleted File: '{0}' at '{1}'" -f $File.Name, $File.ServerRelativeURL)        
    }
 
    #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
            Empty-PnPFolder -Folder $SubFolder
 
            #Delete the folder
            Remove-PnPFolder -Name $SubFolder.Name -Folder $FolderSiteRelativeURL -Force -Recycle
            Write-Host -f Green ("`tDeleted Folder: '{0}' at '{1}'" -f $SubFolder.Name, $SubFolder.ServerRelativeURL)
        }
    }
}
  
#Connect to the site
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -UseWebLogin

#Get the data from CSV file
$CSVFile = Import-CSV $CSVFilePath | Sort-Object ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -Descending
  
#Read CSV file and delete each folder
ForEach($Row in $CSVFile)
{
    Try {
        #Check if folder exists
        $Folder  = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemName $Row.FolderName #-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        If($Folder -ne $Null)
        {
            Write-Host -f Yellow "Deleting Folder '$($Row.FolderName)' from $($Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL)..."
            #Empty the Folder
            Empty-PnPFolder $Folder

            #Delete the folder
            Remove-PnPFolder -Name $Row.FolderName -Folder $Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL -Recycle -Force
            Write-host -f Green "`tFolder '$($Row.FolderName)' Deleted Successfully!"
        }
        Else
        {
            Write-Host "Folder '$($Row.FolderName)' doesn't exists at $($Row.ParentFolderSiteRelativeURL)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        }
    }
    Catch {
        write-host -f Red "`tError:" $_.Exception.Message
    }
}

This script deletes all files, sub-folders first and then deletes folder in SharePoint Online.

To bulk delete files from a CSV file, use: SharePoint Online: Bulk Delete Files from a CSV using PowerShell

Salaudeen Rajack

Information Technology Professional with Two decades of SharePoint Experience.

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