🧽 Ignores OS junk files (.DS_Store, Thumbs.db, desktop.ini): folders containing only them are treated as empty (configurable via emptyFoldersRemover.junkFiles)
📁 Multi-root workspace support: processes all folders in your workspace
🖱️ Explorer context menu: right-click a folder to clean only that folder
♻️ Removed items go to the OS trash by default (configurable via emptyFoldersRemover.useTrash)
📊 Display of removed folders count
⚡ Quick execution via command palette
🛡️ Safe operation with error notifications
Installation
Open VS Code
Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
Search for "Empty Folders Remover"
Click Install
Usage
Open your project folder in VS Code
Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
Type "Remove Empty Folders"
Press Enter
After execution, the extension will show the number of empty folders removed.
Requirements
Visual Studio Code version 1.96.0 or higher
Safety Notes
The extension only removes completely empty folders (OS junk files like .DS_Store don't count as content and are deleted with the folder)
Removed folders and junk files are moved to the OS trash by default, so they can be restored (set emptyFoldersRemover.useTrash to false for permanent deletion, e.g. on remote file systems without trash support)
Workspace root folders are never removed, including nested roots in multi-root workspaces
Junk file patterns without literal characters (such as * or *.*) are ignored to prevent accidental data loss
Folders containing hidden files (like .gitkeep) are not considered empty and won't be removed
The extension is disabled in untrusted workspaces (Workspace Trust)
How it works
The extension performs a recursive scan of your project directory. A folder is considered empty if it contains no files and all of its subfolders are empty. Empty folders are removed in a safe order from deepest to parent to avoid conflicts.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit issues and pull requests on our GitHub repository.
