Must-Know Techniques for Disk Cleanup Not Deleting Files

Solve the problem that Windows 10/11 disk cleaning cannot delete files

Have you ever encountered the problem of "Disk Cleanup Cannot Delete Files" when trying to delete temporary files, download files, etc.? If yes, you can read this article provided by MiniTool to find the most effective way to solve the problem of disk cleaning not working.

Problem: Windows 10/11 disk cleaning cannot delete files

Disk Cleanup is a Windows utility that frees up hard disk space by searching and cleaning disk files, thereby improving system performance. It can clean up system junk files, application cache files, temporary Internet files, download files, log files, and more. Although it is powerful, it can sometimes encounter challenges such as "Disk Cleanup cannot delete files".

Generally speaking, the inability to delete temporary Internet files or other types of files by disk cleaning may be due to the following reasons:

• Disk cleaning does not obtain administrator permissions.
• The current account does not have permission to delete a specific file.
• The system file is corrupted.
• Third-party applications interfere with disk cleaning.

Next, we will guide you step by step how to resolve the problem of "Disk Cleanup Cannot Delete Files".

Method 1: Run disk cleaning as administrator

Running disk cleanup as an administrator provides high integrity permissions for functions that may require additional access to your Windows files. If disk cleaning fails to delete your files, this is an effective solution.

First, type Disk Cleanup in the Windows Search box. Second, right-click Disk Cleanup and choose Run as Administrator from the context menu.

You can then follow the on-screen instructions to use disk cleaning to delete unnecessary files and check if it works as expected.

See also: Seven ways to fix Windows updates to clean up stuck

Method 2: Obtain permission to delete files

Disk Cleanup cannot delete files may also be related to permission settings on the files. Here are the ways to check and modify file permissions:

Step 1. In File Explorer, right-click the file that cannot be deleted and select Properties from the context menu.

Step 2. Go to the Security tab, select the current user account and check if it has full control permissions. If not, click the Edit button.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, select your account and make sure Full Control is set to Allow .

Step 4. Click Apply > OK . After that, run disk cleanup again and check if the target file can be deleted successfully.

Method 3: Run DISM and SFC

Corrupted system files can also be the cause of the "disk cleaning cannot delete files" problem. To detect and repair lost or damaged system files, you can choose to run the DISM and SFC command lines.

Step 1. In the Windows Search box, enter cmd , and right-click the command prompt in the best match result to select Run as administrator .

Step 2. Select the Yes option in the UAC window. If you don't see "Yes", please find the solution from this post: How to fix missing or grayed out of the UAC "Yes" button?

Step 3. In the command line window, enter DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press Enter .

Step 4. Next, type sfc /scannow and press Enter . After executing the command line, you can check if the problem persists.

Method 4: Manually delete temporary files

If disk cleaning cannot delete temporary files, you can choose to delete temporary files manually.

Step 1. Right-click the Windows logo button to select Run .

Step 2. In the text box, type %temp% and press Enter .

Step 3. Press Ctrl A to select all temporary files, and right-click them to select Delete .

Method 5: Use Disk Cleanup Alternatives

In addition to disk cleaning, many tools can be used to delete unnecessary files and free up disk space on Windows. For example, you can use the Storage Awareness feature to delete temporary files, delete files in the Recycle Bin, delete files in the Download folder, and more.

To configure the Storage Awareness settings, you need to go to Windows Settings > System > Storage . In the right panel, click Configure Storage Awareness or run it now .

On the next page, you can open Storage Awareness and set the files you want to delete.

In addition to "storage awareness", you can also use professional PC partition management tools to delete files. MiniTool Partition Wizard is such a reliable and free partition manager. Its Space Analyzer feature (completely free) can help scan your hard drive and show hard drive space usage, then you can view and clean junk files.

You can download the MiniTool Partition Wizard and try it for free.

Summarize

Can't delete files if disk cleanup? Try running it as an administrator, changing file permissions, running DISM and SFC, or you can use the disk cleaning alternative to delete unwanted files.

If you have any questions about this article or MiniTool software, please feel free to contact us.

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