Delete files older than 3 months old in a directory using NET

Question

I would like to know  using C   how I can delete files in a certain directory older than 3 months  but I guess the date period could be flexible    Just to be clear  I am looking for files that are older than 90 days  in other words files created less than 90 days ago should be kept  all others deleted

User · Answer

The GetLastAccessTime property on the System IO File class should help

User · Answer

Something like that               foreach  FileInfo file in new DirectoryInfo  SomeFolder   GetFiles   Where p   gt  p CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now AddDays -90   ToArray                    File Delete file FullName

User · Answer

Here s a 1-liner lambda   Directory GetFiles dirName            Select f   gt  new FileInfo f             Where f   gt  f LastAccessTime  lt  DateTime Now AddMonths -3             ToList             ForEach f   gt  f Delete

User · Answer

I use the following in a console app  running as a service  to get directory info from the App Settings file   Number of days to keep the files is also configurable  multiplied by -1 for use in the AddDays   method of DateTime Now     static void CleanBackupFiles                         string gstrUncFolder   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  DropFolderUNC                     int iDelAge   Convert ToInt32 ConfigurationManager AppSettings  NumDaysToKeepFiles      -1              string backupdir   string Concat        Backup                       string   files   Directory GetFiles string Concat gstrUncFolder  backupdir                  foreach  string file in files                                FileInfo fi   new FileInfo file                   if  fi CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now AddDays iDelAge                                         fi Delete

User · Answer

Basically you can use Directory Getfiles Path  to get a list of all the files   After that you loop through the list and call GetLastAccessTim   as Keith suggested

User · Answer

For those that like to over-use LINQ    from f in new DirectoryInfo  C  Temp   GetFiles    where f CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now Subtract TimeSpan FromDays 90    select f   ToList        ForEach f   gt  f Delete

User · Answer

Just create a small delete function which can help you to achieve this task  I have tested this code and it runs perfectly well    This function deletes files older than 90 days as well as a file with extension  zip to be deleted from a folder    Private Sub DeleteZip        Dim eachFileInMydirectory As New DirectoryInfo  D  Test        Dim fileName As IO FileInfo      Try         For Each fileName In eachFileInMydirectory GetFiles             If fileName Extension Equals    zip   AndAlso  Now - fileName CreationTime  Days  gt  90 Then                 fileName Delete               End If         Next      Catch ex As Exception         WriteToLogFile  No Files older than 90 days exists be deleted    amp  ex Message      End Try End Sub

User · Answer

The most canonical approach when wanting to delete files over a certain duration is by using the file s LastWriteTime  Last time the file was modified    Directory GetFiles dirName            Select f   gt  new FileInfo f             Where f   gt  f LastWriteTime  lt  DateTime Now AddMonths -3             ToList             ForEach f   gt  f Delete        The above based on Uri s answer but with LastWriteTime    Whenever you hear people talking about deleting files older than a certain time frame  which is a pretty common activity   doing it based on the file s LastModifiedTime is almost always what they are looking for   Alternatively  for very unusual circumstances you could use the below  but use these with caution as they come with caveats   CreationTime  Where f   gt  f CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now AddMonths -3     The time the file was created in the current location  However  be careful if the file was copied  it will be the time it was copied and CreationTime will be newer than the file s LastWriteTime   LastAccessTime  Where f   gt  f LastAccessTime  lt  DateTime Now AddMonths -3     If you want to delete the files based on the last time they were read you could use this but  there is no guarantee it will be updated as it can be disabled in NTFS  Check fsutil behavior query DisableLastAccess to see if it is on  Also under NTFS it may take up to an hour for the file s LastAccessTime to update after it was accessed

User · Answer

Alternatively  you can use the File GetCreationTime Method if you need to delete files based on creation dates

User · Answer

Something like this outta do it       using System IO    string   files   Directory GetFiles dirName    foreach  string file in files       FileInfo fi   new FileInfo file      if  fi LastAccessTime  lt  DateTime Now AddMonths -3         fi Delete

User · Answer

Store the number of days after which you want to delete the logs           int Days   30                Storing the path of the directory where the logs are stored             String DirPath   System IO Path GetDirectoryName System Reflection Assembly GetExecutingAssembly   GetName   CodeBase  Substring 6       Log s                   Fetching all the folders              String   objSubDirectory   Directory GetDirectories DirPath                  For each folder fetching all the files and matching with date given              foreach  String subdir in objSubDirectory                                       Getting the path of the folder                                  String strpath   Path GetFullPath subdir                     Fetching all the files from the folder                  String   strFiles   Directory GetFiles strpath                   foreach  string files in strFiles                                          For each file checking the creation date with the current date                      FileInfo objFile   new FileInfo files                       if  objFile CreationTime  lt   DateTime Now AddDays -Days                                                   Delete the file                          objFile Delete                                                               If folder contains no file then delete the folder also                  if  Directory GetFiles strpath  Length    0                                        DirectoryInfo objSubDir   new DirectoryInfo subdir                         Delete the folder                      objSubDir Delete

User · Answer

An SSIS type of example     if this helps anyone             public void Main                                   TODO  Add your code here            Author  Allan F 10th May 2019            first part of process    put any files of last Qtr  or older  in Archive area            e g  if today is 10May2019 then last quarter is 1Jan2019 to 31March2019    any files earlier than 31March2019 will be archived            string SourceFileFolder        adlsaasf11  users   aford05  Downloads  stage             string SourceFilesFolder    string Dts Variables  SourceFilesFolder   Value          string ArchiveFolder    string Dts Variables  ArchiveFolder   Value          string FilePattern    string Dts Variables  FilePattern   Value          string   files   Directory GetFiles SourceFilesFolder  FilePattern              DateTime date   new DateTime 2019  2  15    commented out line    just for testing the dates              DateTime date   DateTime Now          int quarterNumber    date Month - 1    3   1          DateTime firstDayOfQuarter   new DateTime date Year   quarterNumber - 1    3   1  1           DateTime lastDayOfQuarter   firstDayOfQuarter AddMonths 3  AddDays -1            DateTime LastDayOfPriorQuarter   firstDayOfQuarter AddDays -1           int PrevQuarterNumber    LastDayOfPriorQuarter Month - 1    3   1          DateTime firstDayOfLastQuarter   new DateTime LastDayOfPriorQuarter Year   PrevQuarterNumber - 1    3   1  1           DateTime lastDayOfLastQuarter   firstDayOfLastQuarter AddMonths 3  AddDays -1              MessageBox Show  debug pt2  firstDayOfQuarter    firstDayOfQuarter ToString  dd MM yyyy               MessageBox Show  debug pt2  firstDayOfLastQuarter    firstDayOfLastQuarter ToString  dd MM yyyy               foreach  string file in files                        FileInfo fi   new FileInfo file                  MessageBox Show  debug pt2     fi Name         fi CreationTime ToString  dd MM yyyy HH mm           fi LastAccessTime ToString  dd MM yyyy HH mm           fi LastWriteTime ToString  dd MM yyyy HH mm                 if  fi LastWriteTime  lt  firstDayOfQuarter                                 try                                        FileInfo fi2   new FileInfo ArchiveFolder                          Ensure that the target does not exist                        fi2 Delete                           Copy the file                      fi CopyTo ArchiveFolder   fi Name                         Console WriteLine   0  was copied to  1     path  ArchiveFolder                          Delete the old location file                      fi Delete                          Console WriteLine   0  was successfully deleted    ArchiveFolder                                      catch  Exception e                                          do nothing                       Console WriteLine  The process failed   0    e ToString                                                          second part of process    delete any files in Archive area dated earlier than last qtr              e g  if today is 10May2019 then last quarter is 1Jan2019 to 31March2019    any files earlier than 1Jan2019 will be deleted          string   archivefiles   Directory GetFiles ArchiveFolder  FilePattern           foreach  string archivefile in archivefiles                        FileInfo fi   new FileInfo archivefile               if  fi LastWriteTime  lt  firstDayOfLastQuarter                                 try                                       fi Delete                                      catch  Exception e                                          do nothing                                                              Dts TaskResult    int ScriptResults Success

User · Answer

For example  To go My folder project on source  i need to up two folder  I make this algorim to 2 days week and into four hour  public static void LimpiarArchivosViejos                 DayOfWeek today   DateTime Today DayOfWeek          int hora   DateTime Now Hour          if today    DayOfWeek Monday    today    DayOfWeek Tuesday  amp  amp  hora  lt  12  amp  amp  hora  gt  8                        CleanPdfOlds                CleanExcelsOlds                         private static void CleanPdfOlds            string   files   Directory GetFiles        Users Maxi Source Repos 13-12-2017 config pdfListados ApplicaAccWeb Uploads Reports            foreach  string file in files                        FileInfo fi   new FileInfo file               if  fi CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now AddDays -7                   fi Delete                        private static void CleanExcelsOlds                 string   files2   Directory GetFiles        Users Maxi Source Repos 13-12-2017 config pdfListados ApplicaAccWeb Uploads Excels            foreach  string file in files2                        FileInfo fi   new FileInfo file               if  fi CreationTime  lt  DateTime Now AddDays -7                   fi Delete

User · Answer

since the solutions with new FileInfo filePath  are not easily testable  I suggest to use Wrappers for classes like Directory  File and Path like this    public interface IDirectory       string   GetFiles string path      public sealed class DirectoryWrapper   IDirectory       public string   GetFiles string path    gt  Directory GetFiles path      public interface IFile       void Delete string path       DateTime GetLastAccessTime string path      public sealed class FileWrapper   IFile       public void Delete string path    gt  File Delete path       public DateTime GetLastAccessTimeUtc string path    gt  File GetLastAccessTimeUtc path        Then use something like this   public sealed class FooBar       public FooBar IFile file  IDirectory directory                File   file          Directory   directory             private IFile File   get        private IDirectory Directory   get         public void DeleteFilesBeforeTimestamp string path  DateTime timestamp                if  Directory Exists path               throw new DirectoryNotFoundException   The path  path  was not found              var files   Directory              GetFiles path               Select p   gt  new                               Path   p                     or File GetLastWriteTime   or File GetCreationTime   as needed                 LastAccessTimeUtc   File GetLastAccessTimeUtc p                               Where p   gt  p LastAccessTimeUtc  lt  timestamp            foreach var file in files                        File Delete file Path

User · Answer

system IO                List lt string gt  DeletePath   new List lt string gt                 DirectoryInfo info   new DirectoryInfo Server MapPath     TempVideos                 FileInfo   files   info GetFiles   OrderBy p   gt  p CreationTime  ToArray                foreach  FileInfo file in files                                DateTime CreationTime   file CreationTime                  double days    DateTime Now - CreationTime  TotalDays                  if  days  gt  7                                        string delFullPath   file DirectoryName          file Name                      DeletePath Add delFullPath                                               foreach  var f in DeletePath                                if  File Exists F                                         File Delete F                                     use in page load or webservice or any other use   My concept is evrry 7 day i have to delete folder file without using DB

User · Answer

i have try this code and it works very well  hope this answered  namespace EraseJunkFiles       class Program               static void Main string   args                        DirectoryInfo yourRootDir   new DirectoryInfo   C  yourdirectory                 foreach  FileInfo file in yourRootDir GetFiles                    if  file LastWriteTime  lt  DateTime Now AddDays -90                       file Delete

User · Answer

you just need FileInfo -  CreationTime  and than just calculate the time difference   in the app config you can save the TimeSpan value of how old the file must be to be deleted  also check out the DateTime Subtract method   good luck

User · Answer

Here s a snippet of how to get the creation time of files in the directory and find those which have been created 3 months ago  90 days ago to be exact        DirectoryInfo source   new DirectoryInfo sourceDirectoryPath           Get info of each file into the directory     foreach  FileInfo fi in source GetFiles                  var creationTime   fi CreationTime           if creationTime  lt   DateTime Now- new TimeSpan 90  0  0  0                          fi Delete

[c#] Delete files older than 3 months old in a directory using .NET

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