Can't remove a folder with os.remove (WindowsError: [Error 5] Access is denied: 'c:/temp/New Folder')

Question

I'm working on a test case for which I create some subdirs. However, I don't seem to have the permission to remove them anymore. My UA is an Administrator account (Windows XP).

I first tried:

folder="c:/temp/" 
for dir in os.listdir(folder): 
    os.remove(folder+dir)

and then

folder="c:/temp/" 
os.remove(folder+"New Folder")

because I'm sure "New Folder" is empty. However, in all cases I get:

Traceback (most recent call last): 
  File "<string>", line 3, in <module> 
WindowsError: [Error 5] Access is denied: 'c:/temp/New Folder'

Does anybody know what's going wrong?

Aesthete · Answer 1 · 2012-07-24T07:33:51.447

48

os.remove requires a file path, and raises OSError if path is a directory.

Try os.rmdir(folder+'New Folder')

Which will:

Remove (delete) the directory path. Only works when the directory is empty, otherwise, OSError is raised.

Making paths is also safer using os.path.join:

os.path.join("c:\\", "temp", "new folder")

edited Jul 24 '12 at 07:33

answered Jul 24 '12 at 06:18

Aesthete

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score 41 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '12 at 06:47

41

try the inbuilt shutil module

shutil.rmtree(folder+"New Folder")

this recursively deletes a directory, even if it has contents.

answered Jul 24 '12 at 06:47

appusajeev

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You should use os.path.join() when adding paths :) – DeadSec Dec 20 '21 at 15:19

score 22 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 18 '18 at 06:00

22

For Python 3.6, the file permission mode should be 0o777:

os.chmod(filePath, 0o777)
os.remove(filePath)

edited Sep 18 '18 at 06:00

Pang

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answered May 06 '18 at 08:30

Thomas O. Tettey

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Thanks. I think this is an actual answer to the question. – Ninga Dec 15 '18 at 21:43
This worked for me, but @Alexander I'm curious -- since we're about to delete the file anyway, is it still an issue? – pianoJames Mar 29 '19 at 20:10
Since the file is gonna being deleted afterwards, settings the perms to 777 should be ok. Will delete my previous comment. – Alexander Apr 03 '19 at 10:47

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 04 '19 at 10:41

13

os.remove() only works on files. It doesn't work on directories. According to the documentation:

os.remove(path) Remove (delete) the file path. If path is a directory, OSError is raised; see rmdir() below to remove a directory. This is identical to the unlink() function documented below. On Windows, attempting to remove a file that is in use causes an exception to be raised; on Unix, the directory entry is removed but the storage allocated to the file is not made available until the original file is no longer in use.

use os.removedirs() for directories

edited Feb 04 '19 at 10:41

allcaps

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answered Nov 08 '13 at 16:24

8bitwide

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os.rmdir() will remove an empty directory. shutil.rmtree() will delete a directory and all its contents. – sparrow Jul 29 '16 at 18:55

score 10 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 24 '12 at 06:54

10

U can use Shutil module to delete the dir and its sub folders

import os
import shutil

for dir in os.listdir(folder):
    shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(folder,dir))

answered Jul 24 '12 at 06:54

Rakesh

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score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 31 '21 at 08:40

5

Use os.rmdir instead of os.remove to remove a folder

os.rmdir("d:\\test")

It will remove the test folder from d:\\ directory

edited Jan 31 '21 at 08:40

e-frank

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answered Jan 30 '21 at 23:55

arun

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score 4 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 28 '19 at 13:55

4

If you want remove folder, you can use

os.rmdir(path)

edited Apr 28 '19 at 13:55

Zoe

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answered Apr 28 '19 at 13:50

a w

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score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 18 '19 at 13:07

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If it's a directory, then just use:

os.rmdir("path")

edited Sep 18 '19 at 13:07

Adrian Mole

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answered Sep 18 '19 at 09:33

sofblocks

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score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 11 '23 at 18:35

1

import os
import shutil


dir = os.listdir(folder)
for file in dir:
    if os.path.isdir(f'{folder}\\{file}'):
       shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(f'{folder}\\{file}'))
    else:
       os.remove(f'{folder}\\{file}')

edited Apr 11 '23 at 18:35

jmoerdyk

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answered Apr 11 '23 at 16:55

douglas carmaem

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While this code may solve the question, [including an explanation](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/114762) of how and why this solves the problem would really help to improve the quality of your post, and probably result in more up-votes. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, not just the person asking now. Please [edit] your answer to add explanations and give an indication of what limitations and assumptions apply – jmoerdyk Apr 11 '23 at 17:07
folder= path of your file or folder, loop for to check all the items in the directory, and say if it is a file or folder, condition if to validate if it is a folder use shutil if it is a file use file – douglas carmaem Apr 11 '23 at 18:32
@douglas carmaem ... Please add the additional explanation directly in your question, not in a comment. Your additional explanation is still unclear. Please take the time to use complete sentences, proper punctuation and capitalization. This answer could stay here for many years to come. Thank you. – Rich Lysakowski PhD Apr 16 '23 at 04:26

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Feb 19 '16 at 11:37

0

File is in read only mode so change the file permission by os.chmod() function and then try with os.remove().

Ex:

Change the file Permission to 0777 and then remove the file.

os.chmod(filePath, 0777)
os.remove(filePath)

edited Feb 19 '16 at 11:37

Vasfed

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answered Feb 19 '16 at 11:15

Pradeep S

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score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Sep 18 '18 at 06:00

The reason you can't delete folders because to delete subfolder in C: drive ,you need admin privileges Either invoke admin privileges in python or do the following hack

Make a simple .bat file with following shell command

del /q "C:\Temp\*"

FOR /D %%p IN ("C:\temp\*.*") DO rmdir "%%p" /s /q

Save it as file.bat and call this bat file from your python file

Bat file will handle deleting subfolders from C: drive

score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Jun 23 '21 at 19:47

0

Can't remove a folder with os.remove

import os

if os.path.exists("demofile.txt"):
  os.remove("demofile.txt")
else:
  print("The file does not exist")

edited Jun 23 '21 at 19:47

Anton Krug

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answered Jun 23 '21 at 13:44

aezaz vahora

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So your answer is testing if the file exists and if it doesn't then it doesn't try to remove it. However the OP was asking about the folder. – Anton Krug Jun 23 '21 at 18:21

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 16 '22 at 15:08

0

In my case it was due to lack of admin privileges. I solved it running terminal or cmd as administrator

windows key -> cmd -> right click -> run as administrator

answered Oct 16 '22 at 15:08

user18672350

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Can't remove a folder with os.remove (WindowsError: [Error 5] Access is denied: 'c:/temp/New Folder')

13 Answers13

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