Not deleting old OneDrive folders - rmdir is missing


  1. Posts : 318
    Dual-boot Win 7 & 10, both Pro 64-bit, now with a Hyper-V VM of Win 11
       #1

    Not deleting old OneDrive folders - rmdir is missing


    On my Win 10 Pro 64-bit, I ran autoruns. I get these entries together showing that they are not being run because rmdir is missing:
    "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" "" "" "" "5/15/2016 12:11 PM" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6201.1019_1" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6201.1019_1\amd64" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6281.1202\amd64" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6301.0127\amd64" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6302.0225\amd64" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""
    + "Uninstall C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6386.0412\amd64" "" "" "File not found: rmdir" "" ""

    In autoruns, if I select/highlight the first "Uninstall" row above, I see the following at the bottom of my screen:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /q /c rmdir /s /q "C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6201.1019_1"

    Also, in my folder C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\ , the first two subfolders above exist, but the others aren't there any more. I guess the others were deleted already. (Also, it seems my current version of OneDrive is 17.3.6390.0509, and there is a folder for that in C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\ .)

    So, it seems I am missing rmdir and some old OneDrive folders are not getting deleted. Or the cmd line above is simply wrong?

    What do you think?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #2

    The command rmdir goes back in DOS days quite a ways. One thing it relies on is that a directory [renamed to Folders in later versions of Windows] be completely empty before it will work. I don't use OneDrive but could it be the 'cloud' is still holding files that sync back to the computer?
    rmdir at DuckDuckGo
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 318
    Dual-boot Win 7 & 10, both Pro 64-bit, now with a Hyper-V VM of Win 11
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Berton - thanks for quick reply.
    I'm just a tourist, not a PowerUser such as yourself. But I would normally guess that upgrades to OneDrive would not change the actual cloud location where my very few documents are stored or the link between my PC and my cloud location. I think I sent only one or two docs to OneDrive just to test and have mostly forgotten about it.
    Also, what about the note that rmdir is "not found"?
    EDIT - (I ran a search in C:\ for rmdir and there is no search result. But if I open cmd and type rmdir /? , I get the short instructions for using rmdir. So wha' happening, man?)
    EDIT - Also just ran sfc /scannow - no integrity violations.
    Last edited by glnz; 12 Jun 2016 at 10:26.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #4

    glnz said:
    Berton - thanks for quick reply.
    I'm just a tourist, not a PowerUser such as yourself. But I would normally guess that upgrades to OneDrive would not change the actual cloud location where my very few documents are stored or the link between my PC and my cloud location. I think I sent only one or two docs to OneDrive just to test and have mostly forgotten about it.
    Also, what about the note that rmdir is "not found"?
    EDIT - (I ran a search in C:\ for rmdir and there is no search result. But if I open cmd and type rmdir /? , I get the short instructions for using rmdir. So wha' happening, man?)
    EDIT - Also just ran sfc /scannow - no integrity violations.
    As I recall from DOS days and class I took at the college, that command is not a file but built into the Operating System, is part of the OS. There's quite a few commands like that and most still exist in the latest versions of Windows at the Command Prompt. The first EDIT is correct, typing rmdir /? or many other such commands gives a list of switches that can be used with the command. An example would be opening a Command Prompt window and typing dir /s/o which will list all the files and Folders in the C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE Folder. Adding /p gives a screen-full at a time. Adding >dir.txt [without the /p] gives a text document in that Folder for reading and/or printing.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 318
    Dual-boot Win 7 & 10, both Pro 64-bit, now with a Hyper-V VM of Win 11
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Just checking again, and today autoruns shows ONLY these, shaded in yellow:

    Uninstall C:\Users\[My Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6390.0509_1 File not found: rmdir
    Uninstall C:\Users\[My Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6390.0509_1\amd64 File not found: rmdir

    By the way, both such sub-folders exist.

    I also have
    C:\Users\[My Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6201.1019_1 and
    C:\Users\[My Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6720.1207

    This is all a bit confusing - what exactly is MS doing here?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #6

    I wonder if OneDrive is all about synchronizing files on the computer with storage on the cloud. A possible solution may be to save all the data on the cloud onto an External USB drive, unplug it then disable OneDrive followed by cleaning up the hard drive. Then start new with OneDrive. Granted, it would be time consuming but maybe less stressful.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 318
    Dual-boot Win 7 & 10, both Pro 64-bit, now with a Hyper-V VM of Win 11
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Berton - could it be that when OneDrive does a small update, it tries to delete the folders for the prior sub-version?

    Since I have C:\Users\[My Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\17.3.6720.1207 ,
    should the folders for prior versions 6201 and 6390 have been deleted?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #8

    I really don't know if there's supposed to be an automatic deletion of old data or Folders, haven't run into that issue yet.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 1
    Win
       #9

    These occur as OneDrive updates its runtime version. A temp folder is created to install the new oneDrive app. then it is removed, but the startup entry is sometimes left behind. Just clean it up.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #10

    The last post on this was 2 years ago. Be sure to check the date/s so as to stay relevant.
      My Computers


 

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