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Forum Discussion

esmewang's avatar
esmewang
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Find and delete all empty files

Because of a problem I had with data transfer a while back, I now have hundreds of empty files in Dropbox. When I tried to find and delete them all in Terminal, I can't because of a lack of permissio...
Delete
esmewang's avatar
esmewang
Explorer | Level 3
Hi—the answer is yes to all of those questions.

Thank you!
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
2 years ago

Thanks for the info. Are you able to delete the empty files from the Dropbox site directly?

  • esmewang's avatar
    esmewang
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    Yes, I can delete them one by one. The problem is that I have hundreds of these, and I can only find out if a file has zero bytes by clicking on it, which is why I was trying to do it in Terminal. 

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      2 years ago

      Hey esmewang, sorry to jump in here! 

       

      The safest way to go on about it would be either through the app, or through the website. As for the terminal, what kind of error do you get on your end when you try? 

      • esmewang's avatar
        esmewang
        Explorer | Level 3
        2 years ago

        When I try and do this through Terminal: 

         

        /users/***/dropbox find -type f -empty -print (so that I can see and then delete them)

         

        I get this message:

         

        zsh: access denied: /users/***/dropbox

         

         

         

         

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