Java 'file.delete()' Is not Deleting Specified File

The problem could also be due to any output streams that you have forgotten to close. In my case I was working with the file before the file being deleted. However at one place in the file operations, I had forgotten to close an output stream that I used to write to the file that was attempted to delete later.

Be sure to find out your current working directory, and write your filepath relative to it.

This code:

File here = new File(".");
System.out.println(here.getAbsolutePath());

... will print out that directory.

Also, unrelated to your question, try to use File.separator to remain OS-independent. Backslashes work only on Windows.

I got the same problem! then realized that my directory was not empty. I found the solution in another thread: not able to delete the directory through Java

/**
 * Force deletion of directory
 * @param path
 * @return
 */
static public boolean deleteDirectory(File path) {
    if (path.exists()) {
        File[] files = path.listFiles();
        for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
            if (files[i].isDirectory()) {
                deleteDirectory(files[i]);
            } else {
                files[i].delete();
            }
        }
    }
    return (path.delete());
}

Try closing all the FileOutputStream/FileInputStream you've opened earlier in other methods ,then try deleting ,worked like a charm.

I suspect that the problem is that the path is incorrect. Try this:

UserInput.prompt("Enter name of file to delete");
String name = UserInput.readString();
File file = new File("\\Files\\" + name + ".txt");
if (file.exists()) {
    file.delete();
} else {
    System.err.println(
        "I cannot find '" + file + "' ('" + file.getAbsolutePath() + "')");
}