Microsoft 365 : SharePoint Online – PowerShell script to delete file using PnP PowerShell

Hi All,

Greetings for the day !!!

Today sharing one more PowerShell script – script to delete SharePoint online file using PnP PowerShell

Background / Use Case

• Our security team noticed that one important file is shared across multiple sites
• Our team has scanned and found all the sites and respective file locations
• CSV file is prepared
• Next our task is scan through CSV file, get the file location and delete the file
• So we have prepared the PowerShell script, we have used PnP PowerShell

Takeaway

• How to connect to PnP online using PowerShell
• At the end of this article we got to know how to delete respective file using PnP PowerShell

Prerequisites

• PnP online PowerShell module is installed
• If PnP online PowerShell module is not installed then please download latest PowerShell module and install
• You could install PowerShell PnP module using Install-Module CMDLET

Install-Module PnP.PowerShell

Details / Steps

• Connect to site using PnP PowerShell – using Connect-PnPOnline

#connect to PnP online - connect the site from which we need to delete the file

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://knowledgejunction1.sharepoint.com/sites/Demo -Interactive

• Verify if file exists – using Get-PnPFile

 #Verify if file exists

    $file = Get-PnPFile -Url /sites/Demo/Shared%20Documents/fig1.png

    if($file){
       write-host "File exists"
    }

• If file exists – delete the file. Here we are sending the file Recycle Bin using -Recycle parameter to CMDLET – Remove-PnPFile
• -Force attribute is used to bypass the dialog – file deletion confirmation

Remove-PnPFile -SiteRelativeUrl "/Shared Documents/fig1.png" -Recycle -Force

Complete Script

#import PnP PowerShell module
Import-Module PnP.PowerShell -DisableNameChecking

try{
    #connect to PnP online - connect the site from which we need to delete the file
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://knowledgejunction1.sharepoint.com/sites/Demo -Interactive

    #Verify if file exists 
    $file = Get-PnPFile -Url "/sites/Demo/Shared Documents/backcover.jpg"

    if($file){
            #send file to recycle bin - using -Recycle parameter
      Remove-PnPfile -SiteRelativeUrl "/Shared Documents/backcover.jpg" -Recycle -Force
      Write-Host "File /sites/Demo/Shared%20Documents/backcover.jpg deleted 
                  successfully" -ForegroundColor Green 
     }#if($file)
    }#try
    catch{
        Write-Host "Exception occurred : $($_.Exception.Message)" -ForegroundColor Red
    }#catch

References

• PnP PowerShell overview – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/sharepoint/sharepoint-pnp/sharepoint-pnp-cmdlets
• Connect-PnPOnline – https://pnp.github.io/powershell/cmdlets/Connect-PnPOnline.html
• https://knowledge-junction.in/category/technology-articles/powershell-cmdlets/