When i try to install fortnite to play it it says "directory must be empty" i would like to know what it means by this please answer this i want to play fortnite with my friends :(

When i open the launcher it says that my directory must be empty i have no idea what it means what is the meaning of this please be specific of answering me my username is “zin0220”

I have this too and no one has the answer and I’m so confused

Hello,

From my knowledge this error usually means that the folder, otherwise known as a directory, has to be empty which means either you have installed fortnite before and forgot like I’ve done lol… or you have uninstalled it from the launcher as this person did in the fortnite forums (https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/forums/battle-royale/royale-with-cheese/192390-fortnite-folder ). I hope this method works for you, open up the folders where fortnite is instaled by pressing the windows key on your keyboard aswell as R at the same time and it will open a so called “Run Dialog” in the text box enter the following, “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite” without the quotes, if it opens up a window and you see folders named Engine and FortniteGame, then go into the FortniteGame folder and then go into the folder named Binaries then go into Win64 folder, scroll down until you see FortniteLauncher.exe , it should have the fortnite “F” logo on the left. Double click it,

If you do not see any files that have the fortnite “F” logo on the left then go back by pressing the blue arrow that points left on the top left of the window until you see a folder named “Fortnite”, hover over the folder with your white arrow and right click it with the button to the right of your mouse and click Delete.

If this helps you = Awesome

If it doesn’t, Message me back and I’ll be happy to help and possibly play fortnite with you if you have a PS4 :slight_smile:

Sincerely,

It means that the folder you are installing the game to has something in it.

Make a new empty folder or remove what is in the folder you are trying to install to and try again.

I did everything you said and it still hasn’t started installing

I think you might have problems in installing Fortnite. Please specify your system requirements and where you have installed Fortnite. Please inform me I think I can solve your problem

I think you might have problems in installing Fortnite. Please specify your system requirements and where you have installed Fortnite. Please inform me I think I can solve your problem

Sure wish my error message was more clear. I saw the same thing when trying to change to another ssd drive for installation again. The error does not really tell you “which” folder has to be empty. See image here. In my case, it turns out it’s the (lower) Engine Path folder that the installer is complaining about. So I simply renamed the offending folder from “UE_4.25” to “old_UE_4.25” and I was able to then proceed forward (…and then layer, deleting the old_UE_4.25 later).

WARNING: Before you read further, please note that by using this method to clear your directory and update Fortnite, you will have to re-download the application, so if you have poor internet connection, or just not a lot of time, then you may try a different way. The re-download of Fortnite only took me about 20 minutes, but that’s just me.

Ok so I had this same problem, and I read all of the responses because I was completely lost. But, with the help of a few different responses, I did figure it out. So there are three steps:

  1. Press the Windows key and R key at the same time. You may have to try this a few times to get the timing right. But if it worked then you should see a small page on the bottom-left of your screen pop up. It should look like this:

  1. In the text box type “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite” but leave out the quotation marks. It should open up a different page, which should look like this:

  1. The last step is the most fun! So on the Files page, there should be three files listed; “.egstore”, “Engine”, and “FortniteGame”. The final thing is to delete each file one by one. Left click the first one a single time, then right click and select “Delete”. Repeat for each file, and then re-download Fortnite.

Also, if you can’t make out the words on my reference images, just right click said image, and select “Open image in new tab”, then select the new tab and zoom in on whatever is blurry.

If this method did not work, then please re-read it and try again, or if you are still having problems, then you might want to re-think what your problem was. This is a fix to download/update Fortnite on the Epic Games store, when you are unable to download/update because the updater says that “Your directory must be empty”. If your updater does not say that, then you may need a different method, or a completely different fix.

I really hope that this helped, and if it did, then maybe one day I could even get into a match with you!

-KobraPlayz