folders are no longer deleted after all the files are deleted

[kocsszi]

• Package Name: azure-storage-blob
• Package Version: 12.25.0
• Operating System: Ubuntu
• Python Version: 3.12

Describe the bug
When I create blobs in to a container with folders in their name, i.e. folder/file.txt when I delete folder/file.txt the folder sticks around.

To Reproduce

def upload_blob_file(container_name: str, file_path: str, blob_name: str):
    blob_service_client = get_blob_serive_client()
    container_client = blob_service_client.get_container_client(container=container_name)
    with open(file=file_path, mode="rb") as data:
        blob_client = container_client.upload_blob(name=blob_name, data=data, overwrite=True, connection_timeout=7200)

def delete_blob(container_name, blob_name):
    """
    Delete a blob from a container.
    """
    blob_service_client = get_blob_serive_client()
    container_client = blob_service_client.get_container_client(container_name)
    blob_client = container_client.get_blob_client(blob_name)
    blob_client.delete_blob()

container_name = 'your container'
file_path = 'local file path'
blob_path = 'folder/text.txt'

upload_blob_file(container_name, file_path, blob_path)
delete_blob(container_name, blob_path)

Expected behavior
When all files are deleted from the virtual folder the virtual folder gets deleted as well.

Additional context
the numerous empty folders make listing blobs unnecessary long and slow.

[github-actions]

Thanks for the feedback! We are routing this to the appropriate team for follow-up. cc @jalauzon-msft @vincenttran-msft.

[weirongw23-msft]

Hi @kocsszi, thanks for your inquiry. I was able to reproduce the issue you're experiencing locally.

If your goal is to have the folder be deleted automatically, all the blobs within the folder must also be deleted. Are there other blobs that still exist within the folder?

Unfortunately, we can't delete the folder directly by calling delete_blob(). The notion of a directory in blob storage is only virtual, and does not map 1-1 to Azure Data Lake Services (ADLS), which is used as hierarchal namespace storage and has APIs like delete_directory that recursively deletes the folder and all the contents within.

Thanks!

[kocsszi]

Hi @weirongw23-msft - no, I have just empty folders sticking around for forever. I list all the blobs and delete them one by one to arrive at an empty folder. This issue is pretty frustrating since this was working fine just a month or 2 months ago. Then when I deleted all the blobs inside a folder the virtual directory got deleted automatically.

I have a use-case where I put a lot of files into a container and into separate folders as well. When I delete the files and populate them again there are a bunch of empty folders remaining. Then when I list out the blobs in the folder it will be an ever growing list.

I could I guess refactor my approach not to use folders, but nevertheless virtual folders sticking around forever seems like a big bug.

[weirongw23-msft]

Hi @kocsszi, thanks for following up there and sorry you're experiencing these blockers.

I couldn't reproduce exactly what you're experiencing, because after deleting all the blobs, the empty directories are deleted automatically. I also tried re-populating them, and there were no empty directories. Can you provide us with sample code?

[github-actions]

Hi @kocsszi. Thank you for opening this issue and giving us the opportunity to assist. To help our team better understand your issue and the details of your scenario please provide a response to the question asked above or the information requested above. This will help us more accurately address your issue.

[github-actions]

Hi @kocsszi, we're sending this friendly reminder because we haven't heard back from you in 7 days. We need more information about this issue to help address it. Please be sure to give us your input. If we don't hear back from you within 14 days of this comment the issue will be automatically closed. Thank you!