World Outliner - Folder will not delete 4.14

Twitch Here is a video of the bug, I continue to try to delete this folder and it will not go away.

To get this to happen I hit the + create folder rapidly about 6 times then started moving sub directories filled with actors under a new sub folder structure to organize the level. As I did this I created new sub folders in the tree. Finally I had an extra one that I didn’t need from the first 6, so when I tried to delete this folder originally it was 3 levels deep into a sub tree, when it would not delete. I then tried to move it out of the tree to delete it would not delete, I then tried to remove all the items out of it first it appears to delete as you can see in the video, then when I reload the level it comes back. It does take rename changes. I checked my HD for errors but no luck.

I’ve had this same bug pop up since 4.12 but never reported it as I assumed it would be so obvious and noticed when folders would just keep coming back. I’ve been just living with it hoping they would fix it. I’m on a Mac, are you having this on Mac, Linux or Windows?

Windows 7 x64.

Hi eagletree,

This issue has been reported for Macs as UE-39678 which you can track on the following link: On a Mac, Cannot Delete Folder Containing Sub Folders from Content Browser

Please review the issue and let me know if you do not feel that it is the same bug you are experiencing.

Thank you, that does sound like the Mac issue with deleting folders.

Has this also been added as a window issue? Because it is happening to me on Windows 7. I keep trying to get rid of it, will not go away.

I have not been able to reproduce this bug after trying multiple times. Are you able to recreate this in a new, blank Blueprint project? If so, can you provide repro steps? If not, would you willing to provide your project where this bug is occurring?

If you’d be willing to provide your project for evaluation, please send a link to your zipped project on Dropbox, Google drive, etc. to me on our .

-Thanks

This is good practice for making sure things are deleted from the Content Browser as we currently have reports that sometimes deleting folders containing assets removes them from Windows Explorer and other times they don’t. However, this is a different issue regarding deleting a folder from the World Outliner.

This workaround works for me for deleting anything for reals from Unreal Engine.

  • Right-click the parent folder of what you want to delete in the Content Browser and select Fix Up Redirectors in Folder
  • Delete the folder (or other item you want to delete) in the Content Browser (repeat if necessary until it disappears from the Content Browser)
  • Right-click the parent folder in the Content Browser and select Fix Up Redirectors in Folder (again)
  • Quit Unreal Engine
  • Actually delete the folder (or other item you want to delete) from the filesystem manually (It will be under YourProject > Contents > …)
  • Start up Unreal Engine

Ta da! Completely intuitive. Only took me 14 months to nail down how to properly delete things and have them stay deleted.

Note that if you delete an entire tree structure there will often be .uasset files left behind. As long as you have done the “fixing up of redirectors” step, they will be safe to delete manually. If you don’t do that step, then all bets are off.

Doh. Totally missed the World Outliner part. Sorry about that.

Well I started as a tester 27 years ago at Atari (I STILL GOT IT BABY) not only did I repro with a blank project, I crashed the editor 100%. Some people say I do gods work.

The repro is pretty easy, open any project, and you know that magical little plus + sign where it allows you to create folders use that (not the sane method of creating a folder by right clicking and creating a folder it is too slow it is for lesser devs.)

Spam create a ton of folders like 20, this happened to me with 6, and then start deleting them randomly, then move an object into one of them randomly, and then delete that folder, then save the project, close the project, then reopen it, then, keep deleting the folders, working toward the middle or bottom, the editor will crash at some point. Delete the folder you created that has the temp object in it seems to make this happen more often.

At some point the entire tree of folders will just disappear but they are still there, if you close the editor down and reopen it, then delete one the editor should crash when you delete that next random folder.

When you come back to opening the level again you should start to see that some folders will not delete, you can get rid of them one by one by deleting the folder saving the level, then reopening it, at some point you will have one left.

That was the last one, now this happened to me when I was re-org’ing a map file that was getting out of hand and sloppy, and I spam created 6 folders one extra because I am blind and cant see well anymore but refuse to get glasses because I want to look cool.

Its all about that + Create Folder button at the very top right corner of the editor if you are setup like I am in the video not sure what the default settings place it, but it is attached the world outliner and hitting it really fast it seems.

I am willing to corrupt a blank project if you cant get this to break for you and send that.

1 Like

yes I know your above method and used it a few times this is a new one to me.

I tried all my tricks, at least we have progressed since Unreal 1 days, where if you cooked your map the .bsp would corrupt randomly and half your level would disappear, we had no auto save, I had to manually create a new version of the level every 10 mins before building.

Overall the editor is very solid these days.

One of the reasons people can accidentally create extra folders is if you hit that +create folder button with another folder selected and that folder is collapsed you will be creating sub-folders and not see them appearing the world outliner so you might click the button again a few times thinking you missed clicked. I did this a few times, but stopped after 2 or 3 folders deep, deleted them no worries. In this case I had the top node selected when I spam created what I thought was 5 folders but it ended up being 6. Hope this helps.

Here is how I’m trying to reproduce the issue. Let me know what steps I need to modify to reproduce this more accurately.

  1. Using this button, pressing multiple times very quickly (spamming) to create multiple folders in the World Outliner:

  1. Shown below, created 28 folders/subfolders in rapid succession

  1. Project>Save All
  2. Add various props to random subfolders
  3. Delete random subfolders (different from but may include subfolders from the previous step)
  4. Project>Save All
  5. Select all folders and subfolders as shown:

  1. Delete by pressing delete on keyboard
  2. Result all folders and subfolders delete (Even if they do not delete, proceed with the following steps)
  3. Save All
  4. Close project
  5. Reopen project
  6. RESULT: Deleted folders and subfolders remain deleted.

Please refer to these steps whenever possible in order to reduce variables between our two systems.

Hi ,

Step 9 – I deleted the folders one by one not by group selection.

Also go into the middle of the tree and delete a few that have sub folders. This caused the list to just disappear and crash the editor.

Additional select a random folder in the middle of the list of sub folders and create more sub folders.

Looking at the image we are very close to doing the same thing.

I’ve retried this with your updated repro steps but have still not been able to reproduce the issue. If you want to send me a project where this is broken, you can send a link to your zipped file on Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. to me in a private message on our .

Hi Vexar,

Since we have not heard back from you in a while, we are marking this post “resolved” for tracking purposes. However, if you still would like use to pursue this issue, please send the requested files as described in the previous message and we will continue to investigate.

Thanks,

.

Its not fixed, must be a hardware issue on my end if you guys cant get it to reproduce.

No i get this in 4.17.1

an empty folder that keeps coming back even though i delete it multiple times inside the world outliner.

Yep I have the same trouble with the same project, I even tried moving the entire project to another hard drive the folder still remains. I have move the project from through 6 different versions of the engine hoping to see it removed at some point.