Delete Files and Folders - VBA

In this blog you will learn how to:

• Delete a file
• Delete all the files in a folder
• Delete/Create a directory using VBA 

Please note that Kill command permanently deletes the file. we cant "undo" the delete.

'Macro Purpose: To Create/Remove a folder

Sub Create_RemoveDirectory()

    On Error Resume Next

    Kill "C:\Test\*"          ' Deletes all the files in the folder Test

    RmDir "C:\Test\"       ' Deletes empty folder

    MkDir "C:\Test"         ' Creates a Folder name Test

    On Error GoTo 0

End Sub

'Macro Purpose : Deletes given file & deletes all *.TXT files in current directory.

Sub DeleteFile()

    On Error Resume Next

    Kill ("C:\Test1.xlsx")

    Kill ("C:\Test\*.txt")

    On Error GoTo 0

End Sub

Execute the code step by step for better understanding

Sub SampleProcedure()

    Dim fpath As String, ffile As String

    fpath = "C:\Test\"

    ffile = Dir(fpath + "*.txt")

    

    Do While ffile <> ""

        Kill (fpath & ffile)

        ffile = Dir

    Loop        

    MsgBox "Files deleted in the given folder"

End Sub

                                                Hope this would help beginners J

Unable to Delete Folder - "Could not find this item"

Could not find this item - when deleting files/folders

Issue:

Folder that will not allow you to rename, move or delete. But you could successfully delete the contents of the folder.

However when you try to delete the folder you get the error message à

Solution:

The only way to fix this is :
Delete the file from the command prompt with administrator privileges.

Steps:

Step A:

• Go to Start menu

• Type 'Cmd' in the search box

• Select and Right click it

• Select run as Administrator

Step B:

Step B1: Refer - point 1 in the below image

• Browse to the folder containing the affected file/folder 

• Enter the path command window
• CD \to\the\folder\containing\the\problem\file

Step B2: Refer - point 2 in the below image

• Type 'dir /a/x/p' to obtain the 8.3 formatted filename 

Step B3: Refer - point 3 in the below image

• Note the short filename(8.3 formatted filename) of the problem file

• It will look for example like SAMPLE~1

Refer this screen shot

Step B4: Refer - point 4 

Delete folder

• To delete use the 8.3 filename

• Eg : Type rd/s AFFECT~1 or del AFFECT~1 and enter then select Y to delete

Rename folder

• Use Rename or Ren command to rename the File or Folder(use 8.3 filename)
• Eg : ren AFFECT~1 "New filename"

                !************************************************** It's Done J ***************************************!