Rclone sync doesn’t delete empty folders

Help and Support
1

Hi,
I'm experiencing an issue where empty folders created, synced, and then deleted from the source are still left on the destination.
I'm using rclone with a crypted folder on a Swift backend.
After syncing files, any empty folders created during the sync process remain on the destination, even after the source is cleaned up.
Thanks

rclone -V

rclone v1.73.4

  • os/version: Microsoft Windows 11 Home 25H2 25H2 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 10.0.26200.8037 (x86_64)
  • os/type: windows
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.25.9
  • go/linking: static
  • go/tags: cmount

rclone config redacted

[backup]
type = crypt
remote = infomaniak:
password = XXX
password2 = XXX

[infomaniak]
type = swift
user = XXX
key = XXX
auth = https://XXX
domain = XXX
tenant = XXX
tenant_domain = XXX
region = XXX
storage_url =
auth_version =

2

Please provide example what exactly you are doing including debug log (add--log-level DEBUG flag to your command).

3

PS C:\Users***> ls C:\DATA\
# User-specific paths removed
# [EmptyFolder] is not present

PS C:\Users***> &"C:\Program Files\rclone.exe" lsd backup:
[...]
0 2000-01-01 01:00:00 0 [EmptyFolder]
[...]

PS C:\Users***> &"C:\Program Files\rclone.exe" sync C:\DATA backup: --copy-links --checkers=12 --fast-list --log-level DEBUG > output.txt 2>&1

PS C:\Users***> &"C:\Program Files\rclone.exe" lsd backup:
[...]
0 2000-01-01 01:00:00 0 [EmptyFolder]
[...]

Anonymized content of output.txt (The folder [EmptyFolder] is not present in the logs).

rclone.exe : 2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.73.4" starting with parameters ["C:\\Program 
Files\\rclone.exe" "sync" "C:\\DATA" "backup:" "--copy-links" "--checkers=12" "--fast-list" "--log-level" "DEBUG"]
Au caractère Ligne:1 : 1
+ &"C:\Program Files\rclone.exe" sync C:\DATA backup: --copy-links - ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (2026/04/11 20:4...level" "DEBUG"]:String) [], RemoteException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError
 
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "C:\\DATA"
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : Using config file from "C:\\Users\\***\\.config\\rclone\\rclone.conf"
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : local: detected overridden config - adding "{12rtk}" suffix to name
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "C:\\DATA" to be canonical "local{12rtk}://?/C:/DATA"
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "backup:"
2026/04/11 20:46:22 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "infomaniak:"
2026/04/11 20:46:23 DEBUG : Swift root: Auto set use_segments_container to true
2026/04/11 20:46:40 DEBUG : ***: size = 2551169979 OK
[...]
2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : ***: size = 18427 OK
2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : ***: Size and modification time the same 
(differ by 0s, within tolerance 100ns)
2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : ***: Unchanged skipping
2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : Encrypted drive 'backup:': Waiting for transfers to finish
2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : Waiting for deletions to finish
2026/04/11 21:07:52 INFO  : 
Transferred:   	   21.543 KiB / 21.543 KiB, 100%, 0 B/s, ETA 0s
Checks:             32057 / 32057, 100%, Listed 66958
Transferred:            1 / 1, 100%
Elapsed time:     21m29.5s

2026/04/11 21:07:52 DEBUG : 26 go routines active
4

I think that what is happening is that empty directories were never fully implemented for Swift object storage…

so until done I am afraid you are out of luck. Maybe it is something you can help with?

5

Thank you for your help