can not delete folder on my web space
 

Hello folks I hope you can help me a wee bit here, I have had this problem for over a year now and it's really annoying me now because I cannot figure out how to fix it.

I use Cute FTP Pro to access my web space and I upload bits and bobs for secondary back up like IE6 favorites and screenshots etc. I have a folder called 'media' that refuses to be deleted. The only thing that has ever been in this folder is my IE6 favorites.zip which has long since been deleted and the 'media' is now empty.

Using Cute FTP Pro and trying to delete the 'media' folder I get the following error displayed:

"File exists ERROR:>Requested action not taken (e.g., file or directory not found,no access"

I have tried renaming the folder, putting something in it, moving to another folder and then deleting it and also using the free 'FTP Explorer' software to access my webspace and delete it with no success.

Seems I can do everything with this folder like move it etc. but just cannot delete it. The CHMOD/Permissions are set to 755 (read, write, execute)

How do I delete this folder please?

Thank you.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Hi, & :welcome: to the site.

We do have a specific forum for discussion on webspace issues (you have posted this in the broadband discussion forum)

I'll move the thread, & I'm sure someone will be along with an answer.

Enjoy the site. :)

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

I had a problem once when I ended up with a directory name that started with a space character. I couldn't sort it myself but in the end someone from NTL (I think it was Beetwoot) helped me out.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Try DOS ftp, start/run FTP

open whateveraddress

stick in your username, then password

cd to your web documents folder

then try RMDIR media

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Thanks for the replies.

Bifta I tried using start/run FTP (didnt know you could do that) and I have got as far as being able to log on to upload.ntlworld.com with my user name and password but thats about as far as I can get really because I hav'nt a clue what I doing :-)

After logging in with my user name and password I typed 'CD 'foldername' the reply was 'CWD command sucessful' I then typed 'RMDIR media' the reply was '550 media: file exists' Am stuck now :-)

Thanks again for the help folks.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

foldername = whatever folder your web documents are stored in, sometimes when you log in to an FTP server you might need to navigate to another folder called (for example) httpdocs or public_html, I'm not sure what the directory format for Ntlworld is.

Anyhoo, log in again, when you're in type LS if it shows "media" as a folder, type CD media, then type LS again and see if it shows any files under DOS FTP.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

WOW! that was a quick reply thanks.

Ok sorry 'cd 'folder name' I typed above was just used as an example. The 'media' folder I wish to delete is in a folder called 'temp' so following your advice above here is what happens:

I log in to upload.ntlworld.com and then input my user name and password. Next I typed 'LS' which shows the 'temp' folder listed ok so I then typed 'CD temp' the reply was 'CWD command sucessful' so once again I typed 'LS' now I can see the 'media' folder listed.

I then typed 'RMDIR media' and I get the reply '550 media: file extists'. I have also tried 'CD media' getting the reply 'CWD command sucessful' once more and then I typed 'LS' once more and there is nothing listed in the media folder because its empty which I knew anyway.

Am I doing something wrong please?

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

What are the permissions set at for the temp folder?

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Both the temp and the media folders permissions are set to '755 read, write, execute for 'owner' and read, execute for group and public when I check them with cute ftp.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

I am probably being VERY thick here (way way too long since I used unix or similar) but don't you need delete permissions on the media directory to be "allowed" to delete it? If that is the case I haven't a clue how you grant yourself delete access but at least you know what you are looking for:)

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

try using another FTP prgroam, the one I use is: Filezilla

install this, which is completely free and input your username and password, and enter your webspace, and see whether or not you can delete your folder from there.

ik

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

soneill The rest of the folders on my webspace all have the same permissions set as the media folder and I can delete these no problems if I wish.

ikthius I have tried other FTP software as I mentioned above but without sucess.

Thanks for all your help so far.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

depends on what kind of help you need! and where is the thread?

ik

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Sounds to me like there is a 'hidden' file in the folder, but it's a long time since I used Unix - does Unix have 'hidden' files, and is there an equivalent to Windows 'Show hidden files'?

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

I was going to say the same thing - within Filezilla you can select the option to show hidden files, and it them becomes deletable (is that a word?) - had this problem several times

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

in the view menu it has the show hidden files

ik

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

In Unix, you have to specify a switch to delete a directory (no such thing as folders - that's Microsoft) that contains files (including subdirectories). Hidden files will start with a period - e.g. .hidden - and will be visible with ls -la

rm -r directory-name
rm -R directory-name

There's a difference between R and r but I can't remember - it's not important. The command rmdir will only delete empty directories.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

bump!

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

hope you dont mind me bumping this up again folks. still not resolved.

many thanks.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Files starting with a period will by default not be visible in FTP on a unix server, and folders that contain one or more files cannot be deleted which suggests that your media folder contains a file that starts with a period, however if you do not know the name then you will be unable to delete it as you can't see it. If you still have the files stored locally check them to see if you do have any files that start with a period then use the dele command the remove it by name as in the example below (I'm using ".htaccess" as that's a file I had to hand, it could be something like ".mydocument.doc" etc):

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Thanks simbr i think you have indeed hit the nail on the head. The only things that were ever in this media folder were IE6 favorites. i have had a look through all my internet explorer favorites and found one for a website called musicbrigade.com. the shortcut in internet explorer properties is named '. musicbrigade .'


im pretty sure i would have had this stored at the time when i uploaded my favorites so i tried once more and opened my media folder and typed LS, no files or folders found so i typed 'dele . musicbrigade .' now it tells me '550: not owner'

I am sure this has got to be the hidden file because if i dont put a space after the period and before musicbrigade when using dele it just says no such file or directory so '. musicbrigade .' must be in the media folder, correct?

Thanks for all the help so far folks.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Unix doesn't understand spaces, so it think's your trying to delete a file named "." which a kinda shortcut in unix (there are two in every directory, "." which mean the current directory and ".." which means the parent directory) so naturally you can't delete it which is why you get that message. Also, the filename is probably in fact ". musicbrigade ..url"
__________________

Try the command
I tested it (and it took a while to create a file with that name on WinNT..) and it worked for me.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

ok i just tried 'dele . musicbrigade ..url' and got the same reply '550: not owner' :-)
__________________

ps. i also tried 'dele . musicbrigade ..http://www.musicbrigade.com' and also got the reply '550: not owner'

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Sorry, I should ahve been clearer: you need to actually type the inverted commas in order for it to accept the space as part of the filename, since spaces normally seperate command options

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

simbr your a star! that worked a treat thank you very much.

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Glad it worked, thanks for the update :)

Re: can not delete folder on my web space
 

Hello simbr, it qould appear I have the same issue, only without knowing the names of the hidden files I am unable to delete either them or the directory in which they live.

How can this default behaviour be changed ? If I can't resolve this I don't think the webspace is much use to me. Bonus question: surely other, paid-for webspace providers ISPs don't have this limitation ?