Delete Empty Folders in Google Drive Cloud

Vikas Data Management

Digital documents and folders are an essential part of an individual’s digital life. Managing files and folders accumulated from different people and enterprises can be a daunting task. Managing your files and folders regularly can help improve productivity and result in better coordination with other team members.

Manually finding empty folders can take forever. Besides, some folders might contain hidden files. Mistakenly deleting such folders could result in unexpected data losses. But don’t worry, with the right tools and expertise, you can delete empty folders easily without losing any of your precious data.

Empty folders are a menace. They don’t occupy any space but they do affect productivity in a negative way and they should be fixed the sooner, the better. Use the Empty Folders Tool in Clone Files Checker to delete bulk empty folders with a single click. Besides, Clone Files Checker will help delete duplicate files in Google Drive and recover lots of storage space.

Delete Empty Folders using Clone Files Checker

Clone Files Checker is distributed with verifiable digital signatures

How Do You Accumulate Empty Folders?

There are different occasions when you accumulate empty folders:

  • As a Google Drive user, you might be sharing your files and folders with other users, and their activities might have resulted in the creation of new empty folders.
  • If you’re syncing your Google Drive account with multiple devices at home/ office, it could add up new empty folders to your Google Drive account.
  • Sometimes you transfer files from one location to another but forget to delete the empty source directories. These file transfer activities result in a lot of empty folders and eventually disorganized file systems.
  • When you uninstall applications from your computer, some left-over folders continue to remain on your hard drive.

How to Find & Delete Empty Folders in Google Drive

Method 1: Manually Find Empty Folders in Google Drive

Google Backup & Sync is a synchronization client from the search-giant that lets you browse through your Google Drive folders and files offline. You can view your files, change contents and manage them without Internet connectivity.  Using Google Backup & Sync, you can view the files and folders list in File Explorer and search them using different parameters.

To find empty folders, follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Download and Set Up Google Backup & Sync

Download Google Backup & Sync and install it on your computer.

Sign in to your Google account. If your account is protected with 2-Factor Authentication, you may be asked to confirm the OTP.

Google Backup & Sync will prompt you to select the directories to sync.

Wait until your files are synced offline. This might take some time depending on the number and size of your files. You can check the file sync status in the Google Backup & Sync icon in the Notification Area of your Taskbar.

Step 2: Download Folder Size Explorer (Free)

A free program called Folder Size Explorer lists the directories on your hard disk along with their sizes. It continuously monitors changes to your folders and determines the folder size in readable formats (bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB, etc).

The program window is split into two parts- The left-hand side panel shows a treeview of all drives and folders on your hard drive. The centre-panel which occupies most of the screen displays the sub-folders in the selected drive/ folder.

Here’s how to use Folder Size Explorer to list all the synced Google Drive directories on to your PC and find empty folders:

  1. Download and install Folder Size Explorer.
  1. Use the treeview on the left-hand side to browse through your drives/ directories and select the Google Drive folder.
  2. Once you select the Google Drive folder, a list of all sub-folders will appear on the right-hand side panel alongside other information such as Size, Files Counts, Folders Count, Date Modified, Status, etc.
  3. Click on the Search column-head to sort and rearrange the folders list in ascending order.
  1. Now you can easily identify and delete the empty folders with 0 MB Size.
  2. To delete a folder, simply right-click on it and select the Delete option.

Limitations:

  • This method has its own limitations. For example, you will need to synchronize your Google Drive files offline to find empty folders. There is no way to explore folders by size in Google Drive itself.
  • Another major limitation is that you’ll need to browse through each parent directory and sort all sub-folders by their size. If you’ve a bunch of folders in your Google Drive account, it can take an enormous amount of time.

Method 2: Automatically Delete Empty Folders in Google Drive with One-Click (Recommended)

The easy and recommended way to find empty folders in Google Drive is to use a specialized application designed for this purpose.

Clone Files Checker is a duplicate finder and empty folders cleaner that does this job pretty well without the user’s intervention. You’ll need to first sync your Google Drive files offline and then use the CFC to search for empty directories. Here’s how:

Step 1: Download Google Backup & Sync

Make sure that you’ve downloaded Google Backup and Sync and synced your files offline before proceeding further. If not, refer to the steps in the Method 1 above.

Step 2: Find & Delete Empty Folders

  1. Download and install Clone Files Checker.
  2. Click on the Remove Empty Folders link-label on the top.
  1. Click on Add Path.
  2. Select your Google Drive locally synced folder.
  1. You can also add other local folders if required.
  2. Click on Delete Empty Folders to delete all the empty folders.

Limitation:

  • Just like the manual method, you’ll need to first install Google Backup and Sync and sync your files offline.