# Why can't PMS delete folders?
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724
**Category:** General Discussions
**Created:** [February 25, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724 "2017-02-25T19:19:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zprewitt](https://forums.plex.tv/u/zprewitt)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/1 "2017-02-25T19:19:34Z")
I’ve deleted a fair amount of content over the years using Plex, and the folder is always left over. After a cursory search online, it would appear there’s no way to tell Plex to delete the folder when you’re deleting content. Why is this?
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/2 "2017-02-25T19:28:20Z")
Plex just learned to do that.
It might not retroactively work on your old folders, but from v 1.4.2 on, when you erase an episode from within Plex, and it is the last episode within a season or show, the season / show folders are getting removed as well.
But it appears this feature is not for everyone \<:-P
> **[Deleting a single TV show now deletes the entire season folder and/or title...](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/260009/deleting-a-single-tv-show-now-deletes-the-entire-season-folder-and-or-title-folder-from-server)**
>
> I’m currently using PMS v1.4.2.3200 with the Roku 4.3.2 Preview build. The issue I’m seeing has occured since at least the Roku 4.3.0 Release… After finishing watching a TV show and choosing to delete it, instead of just the single TV episode being...
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### Author:  [@zprewitt](https://forums.plex.tv/u/zprewitt)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/3 "2017-02-25T20:29:23Z")
Does this apply to movie folders as well?
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/4 "2017-02-25T21:49:18Z")
> @zprewitt said:
> Does this apply to movie folders as well?
I am not sure, actually. But I think so.
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### Author:  [@widget100](https://forums.plex.tv/u/widget100)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2017, 11:24am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/5 "2017-03-11T11:24:08Z")
I’m furious about this, just lost upwards of 100 empty folders which were there as place holders. Can’t add a folder as plex deletes it again. Every time I delete the last show in a folder Plex deletes the folder again.
Also deleted 1 of 2 files with the same name in different folders.
I cant see the thread noted above as I’m not a plex pass subscriber.
How the &(_&(_& do I get Plex to stop deleting stuff.
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### Author:  [@JuiceWSA](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JuiceWSA)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/6 "2017-03-11T15:27:46Z")
> @widget100 said:
> How the &(_&(_& do I get Plex to stop deleting stuff.
Plexweb/Settings/Server/Library/Uncheck: Allow media deletion
That way you won’t be tempted to find and manually click a ‘trash can’ or ‘delete button’ - read on, there is still hope for you.
Us Old-Timers are pretty tricky and we already know that leaving the last watched episode in that Season folder is highly recommended, because when you add a new episode after the post-mid-season-catch-up-binge-fest it shoots right to On Deck and we can then delete the ‘seed-episode’. It’s like some kind of scary magic or something and more magic ensues when you realize if you leave that last ‘seed-episode’ in the folder, the folder doesn’t get deleted and mysteriously not show up in the recycle bin in this already perfectly thought out, implemented and undocumented Plex ‘Feature’ that will never change in design or by option.
I’m not sure what you were keeping in those folders that you simply can’t do without, but I do know that some of us Old Timers don’t trust banks and keep our millions under the mattress. Better not stash any coinage in those folders if you don’t want to alter the way you’re doing your seasonal episode maintenance cause there’s a new Janitor in Plex Town, partner.
🙂
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### Author:  [@widget100](https://forums.plex.tv/u/widget100)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/7 "2017-03-11T20:58:46Z")
No, that’s not the answer. This is new behaviour with the latest update. I want to be able to delete files from Plex, I just don’t want it scavenging where it’s not supposed to.
I’ve been using plex for years on a variety of platforms and it’s never deleted empty folders and dupe files in a sub directory.
To answer your question the reason I leave them there after watching the contents is so that next week when I add the new episode into it via a script I don’t have to recreate the folder for it. I also leave empties because it’s a reminder to go searching for a new episode periodically for intermittent shows.
And as far as ‘on deck’ is concerned, I hate it so it’s disabled for all libraries.
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### Author:  [@JuiceWSA](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JuiceWSA)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/8 "2017-03-11T23:17:54Z")
Okey Dokey.
Until Plex notices this grievous mistake in their development and develops the fix (wouldn’t hold my breath) you’d better leave that last ‘seed-episode’ in the folder.
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### Author:  [@My\_Beer\_Belly](https://forums.plex.tv/u/My_Beer_Belly)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/9 "2017-03-13T02:47:32Z")
I just found this after doing some searching and it’s ridiculous. Plex has never done this before, and I can understand why it was implemented, but at least give us a check box for which behavior we want. Today I’ve had 6 failed post-processings in Sickbeard because the folder wasn’t there. That’s when I realized that if I deleted the file from within Plex that the folder disappeared as well. So currently, if I watch a show and delete it before the next episode airs then it will delete the folder. Then when Sickbeard grabs the next episode the following week, it will have no where to copy the final file and it will sit in my download folder… not in the shows folder that I have set up as my TV Shows library. I’d much rather have to manually go through and occasionally delete folder for shows I know longer watch rather than have to manually add a folder every single time I forget to not delete the last episode before the next downloads.
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### Author:  [@widget100](https://forums.plex.tv/u/widget100)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/10 "2017-03-13T17:55:02Z")
Exactly my point. Changing behaviour to scavenge like this is ridiculous and unacceptable. You don’t expect a commercial application to behave like a virus.
I know deleting the folder when deleting the last file is something that’s been asked for in Plex for a long time but it should have a checkbox to switch the mode on, and not just go through my entire filesystem deleting every empty folder
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### Author:  [@widget100](https://forums.plex.tv/u/widget100)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/11 "2017-03-15T17:34:31Z")
Rolled back to previous version, my problem is solved. Wont be upgrading again until it’s fixed.
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### Author:  [@Bladejay](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Bladejay)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/12 "2017-04-05T01:47:44Z")
What is the best version to roll back to so as to avoid this feature?
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### Author:  [@hthighway](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hthighway)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 3:00am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/13 "2017-04-05T03:00:08Z")
> @“My Beer Belly” said:
> I just found this after doing some searching and it’s ridiculous. Plex has never done this before, and I can understand why it was implemented, but at least give us a check box for which behavior we want. Today I’ve had 6 failed post-processings in Sickbeard because the folder wasn’t there. That’s when I realized that if I deleted the file from within Plex that the folder disappeared as well. So currently, if I watch a show and delete it before the next episode airs then it will delete the folder. Then when Sickbeard grabs the next episode the following week, it will have no where to copy the final file and it will sit in my download folder… not in the shows folder that I have set up as my TV Shows library. I’d much rather have to manually go through and occasionally delete folder for shows I know longer watch rather than have to manually add a folder every single time I forget to not delete the last episode before the next downloads.
Can’t you just enable `Create missing show directories` in Sickrage?
(Sonarr has the same type of setting)
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### Author:  [@Bladejay](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Bladejay)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/14 "2017-04-05T18:34:53Z")
> @Bladejay said:
> What is the best version to roll back to so as to avoid this feature?
Sorry, wrong question. Is there a place where I can download older versions of PMS…preferably v. 1.4.1?
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### Author:  [@DJDOC1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/DJDOC1)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/15 "2018-11-08T13:01:12Z")
The original question is: Why can’t PMS delete folders? I also have this problem. If I delete a movie from my collection and in has a .srt (subtitle) file or a folder (movie poster) file with the movie in the same file the movie will be deleted but the file will remain due to the .srt file within. I wont see the movie in PLEX but I do see the file in Microsoft Explorer or my ReadyNAS’ Ready Cloud.
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### Author:  [@zycnus](https://forums.plex.tv/u/zycnus)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/16 "2019-12-14T19:17:44Z")
2019 now and nothing has changed!
Delete a movie will only delete the file, not the whole folder!
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-cant-pms-delete-folders/181724/17 "2020-03-13T19:18:01Z")
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