Hi,
I’m running dockerized seafile community server 9.0.10.
There are 4 folders nobody can delete, no matter how hard we try.
It seems that accents are involved, but I haven’t got errors on other folder with accent.
We notice theses 4 folders doesn’t appears in SeaDrive. May be a clue.
here is a screenshot of the 4 “Collège *” faulty folders.
Do you know a special command to force delete ?
You can check errors from the browser’s debug console to see which requests fail.
Hi Jonathan …
No errors in the seafile.log when we deleted these files …
but, error, when we moved them.
2023-04-03 23:57:59 start to serve on pipe client
2023-04-04 09:22:35 repo-op.c(3206): [move files] File Collège B not Found.
and no errors in browser’s console 
I still have issue with accent in name of directory.
This time, on seafile v13 CE (docker) … can’t find any error for this in the logs …
The directory is delete fine in the browser, with a successfull message … but when I refresh the page …it re appears … still alive !
I’ve tried with the terminal (seadrive) and it’s the same …
What logs I can check ?
Thanks for the help
I found error on seafile-mysql but maybe it’s not about that …
2026-05-20 8:30:56 381706 [Warning] Aborted connection 381706 to db: ‘seahub_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.4’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:31:08 381687 [Warning] Aborted connection 381687 to db: ‘seafile_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.9’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:31:08 381720 [Warning] Aborted connection 381720 to db: ‘seafile_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.9’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:32:56 381636 [Warning] Aborted connection 381636 to db: ‘seafile_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.4’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:32:56 381637 [Warning] Aborted connection 381637 to db: ‘seahub_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.4’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:32:58 381813 [Warning] Aborted connection 381813 to db: ‘seahub_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.4’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:33:24 381852 [Warning] Aborted connection 381852 to db: ‘seafile_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.9’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
2026-05-20 8:33:24 381853 [Warning] Aborted connection 381853 to db: ‘seafile_db’ user: ‘seafile’ host: ‘172.18.0.9’ (Got an error reading communication packets)
It seems like you are encountering a character encoding or normalization issue, which is a known cause for folders with accents or diacritics failing to delete or “resurrecting” after deletion.
Based on similar cases, here are a few things you should check:
Seafile internally expects filenames to be in NFC (Normalization Form C). If the folder was created via a system using NFD (like macOS or certain terminal configurations), the server might report a “success” because it processed the request, but fail to actually find and delete the object in the filesystem/database because the strings don’t match exactly.
seafile.log specifically for errors like repo-op.c: [move/delete files] File ... not Found at the exact moment you try to delete the folder.In the Web UI, go to the library and check the History.
The Aborted connection ... (Got an error reading communication packets) warnings in your MySQL logs usually indicate that the connection was closed by the client (Seafile) or timed out. While possibly unrelated to the accents, if your database is under load or timing out during a complex delete operation, it could cause the transaction to fail. You might try increasing the wait_timeout and max_allowed_packet in your MySQL configuration.
To help diagnose further, could you check if there are any specific errors in seahub.log at the timestamp of the deletion?
Hi Daniel.
No msg in seafile.log when I delete it, but one when I try to move it …
[2026-05-20 12:26:06] [WARNING] repo-op.c(3320): [move files] File Z. Rhône not Found.
[2026-05-20 12:32:31] [WARNING] repo-op.c(3320): [move files] File Z. Rhône not Found.
The directory name is “Z. Rhône”
Obviously, the ô is hell 
Hello @DavidV ,
How did you upload these directories?
If you uploaded them through client, the issue is likely caused by the client not converting macOS directories encoded in NFD to NFC. As a result, the directory names stored in Seafile metadata are actually in NFD format. However, before processing file operations, the server converts file names to NFC, which causes the lookup to fail because the metadata is still stored as NFD.
In this situation, if the directories were uploaded through a client, you should still be able to delete them using the same client that was used for the upload. Alternatively, you can back up the parent directory first and then delete the parent directory directly.
Ok thanks @feiniks , it’s sound like a NFD converting issue.
I’ll check 
I can delete it from seadrive (on MacOS) … but it can’t sync the deletion on the server. 
Hello @DavidV ,
This is likely because the logic used by the SeaDrive is consistent with the server’s behavior, so it cannot synchronize this deletion to the server. To remove the file, you will need to use the same client that was originally used to upload it. Alternatively, you can back up the directory and then delete its parent directory.
Ouch ! This directory was created 4 years ago … in a shared library, I don’t know by who and how …
And there is so many files in the parent directory …
Thx anyway for your help