[powershell] Delete files older than 15 days using PowerShell

I would like to delete only the files that were created more than 15 days ago in a particular folder. How could I do this using PowerShell?

This question is related to powershell powershell-2.0 powershell-3.0

The answer is


Esperento57's script doesn't work in older PowerShell versions. This example does:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\temp" -Recurse -force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | where {($_.LastwriteTime -lt  (Get-Date).AddDays(-15) ) -and (! $_.PSIsContainer)} | select name| Remove-Item -Verbose -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

$limit = (Get-Date).AddDays(-15)
$path = "C:\Some\Path"

# Delete files older than the $limit.
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.CreationTime -lt $limit } | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse

This will delete old folders and it content.


just simply (PowerShell V5)

Get-ChildItem "C:\temp" -Recurse -File | Where CreationTime -lt  (Get-Date).AddDays(-15)  | Remove-Item -Force

If you are having problems with the above examples on a Windows 10 box, try replacing .CreationTime with .LastwriteTime. This worked for me.

dir C:\locationOfFiles -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where { ((Get-Date)-$_.LastWriteTime).days -gt 15 } | Remove-Item -Force

Basically, you iterate over files under the given path, subtract the CreationTime of each file found from the current time, and compare against the Days property of the result. The -WhatIf switch will tell you what will happen without actually deleting the files (which files will be deleted), remove the switch to actually delete the files:

$old = 15
$now = Get-Date

Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse |
Where-Object {-not $_.PSIsContainer -and $now.Subtract($_.CreationTime).Days -gt $old } |
Remove-Item -WhatIf

The given answers will only delete files (which admittedly is what is in the title of this post), but here's some code that will first delete all of the files older than 15 days, and then recursively delete any empty directories that may have been left behind. My code also uses the -Force option to delete hidden and read-only files as well. Also, I chose to not use aliases as the OP is new to PowerShell and may not understand what gci, ?, %, etc. are.

$limit = (Get-Date).AddDays(-15)
$path = "C:\Some\Path"

# Delete files older than the $limit.
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.CreationTime -lt $limit } | Remove-Item -Force

# Delete any empty directories left behind after deleting the old files.
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -and (Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer }) -eq $null } | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse

And of course if you want to see what files/folders will be deleted before actually deleting them, you can just add the -WhatIf switch to the Remove-Item cmdlet call at the end of both lines.

The code shown here is PowerShell v2.0 compatible, but I also show this code and the faster PowerShell v3.0 code as handy reusable functions on my blog.


Another alternative (15. gets typed to [timespan] automatically):

ls -file | where { (get-date) - $_.creationtime -gt 15. } | Remove-Item -Verbose

Another way is to subtract 15 days from the current date and compare CreationTime against that value:

$root  = 'C:\root\folder'
$limit = (Get-Date).AddDays(-15)

Get-ChildItem $root -Recurse | ? {
  -not $_.PSIsContainer -and $_.CreationTime -lt $limit
} | Remove-Item

Try this:

dir C:\PURGE -recurse | 
where { ((get-date)-$_.creationTime).days -gt 15 } | 
remove-item -force

#----- Define parameters -----#
#----- Get current date ----#
$Now = Get-Date
$Days = "15" #----- define amount of days ----#
$Targetfolder = "C:\Logs" #----- define folder where files are located ----#
$Extension = "*.log" #----- define extension ----#
$Lastwrite = $Now.AddDays(-$Days)

#----- Get files based on lastwrite filter and specified folder ---#
$Files = Get-Children $Targetfolder -include $Extension -Recurse | where {$_.LastwriteTime -le "$Lastwrite"}

foreach ($File in $Files)
{
    if ($File -ne $Null)
    {
        write-host "Deleting File $File" backgroundcolor "DarkRed"
        Remove-item $File.Fullname | out-null
    }
    else
        write-host "No more files to delete" -forgroundcolor "Green"
    }
}

Examples related to powershell

Why powershell does not run Angular commands? How do I install the Nuget provider for PowerShell on a unconnected machine so I can install a nuget package from the PS command line? How to print environment variables to the console in PowerShell? Check if a string is not NULL or EMPTY The term 'ng' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet VSCode Change Default Terminal 'Connect-MsolService' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet Powershell Invoke-WebRequest Fails with SSL/TLS Secure Channel Install-Module : The term 'Install-Module' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet Change directory in PowerShell

Examples related to powershell-2.0

Extract the filename from a path Out-File -append in Powershell does not produce a new line and breaks string into characters Using PowerShell to remove lines from a text file if it contains a string PowerShell The term is not recognized as cmdlet function script file or operable program Can't install nuget package because of "Failed to initialize the PowerShell host" Powershell script to see currently logged in users (domain and machine) + status (active, idle, away) How to export data to CSV in PowerShell? powershell is missing the terminator: " PowerShell script to check the status of a URL How to upgrade PowerShell version from 2.0 to 3.0

Examples related to powershell-3.0

Check if a file exists or not in Windows PowerShell? Executing a batch file in a remote machine through PsExec Powershell get ipv4 address into a variable How can you test if an object has a specific property? PowerShell To Set Folder Permissions Using PowerShell to remove lines from a text file if it contains a string Powershell script to see currently logged in users (domain and machine) + status (active, idle, away) powershell is missing the terminator: " How to upgrade PowerShell version from 2.0 to 3.0 Copy-item Files in Folders and subfolders in the same directory structure of source server using PowerShell