Delete Revit Backup Files - Everywhere!

If you know me, you know I am the opposite of a hoarder when it comes to electronic files. I love deleting things. It just brings me joy to delete data. So, Revit's need to create backups, just bugs me. It does not feel like good file maintenance to have all kinds of backups everywhere, and a bit dangerous when newbies open these files by mistake.

So once again, DOS to the rescue. Place this text in a batch file and save it in the root directory that you want to clean up.

del /s /F *.0*.rvt

del /s /F *.0*.rfa

del /s /F *.0*.rte

This will delete all the backups of projects, families, and templates in the root and every sub-folder that follows. Double click the BAT file and your work is done.  the /s tells DOS to delete files that meet the criteria in sub-folders, and the /F tells DOS to go ahead and delete locked files. 

To see what you just deleted and the word "pause" to the last line like this:

del /s /F *.0*.rvt

del /s /F *.0*.rfa

del /s /F *.0*.rte

pause               

If you want to know what you are deleting before you delete it. this this.

dir /s *.0*.rvt

dir /s *.0*.rfa

dir /s *.0*.rte

pause          

All of this works for me because a great IT department means I can restore old files at any time. If you don't have the same confidence, act accordingly.