Solved Disk Clean-up always shows 0.99GB Temporary Internet Files?

Win 11 Pro 23H2 build 22631.2861

As the title says, I can run 'Disk Clean-up' several times with 'Temporary Internet Files' selected for deletion and it still shows 0.99GB files for deletion after they are supposedly deleted in the previous run. I did not go on the internet in-between runs.
Are they being recreated immediately after deletion? If so, then why bother having them available for deletion in the first place?

I can see a lock symbol in front but if the files are locked then why allow them to be selected for deletion?
Why are these files locked? Can they be unlocked? Where are these files located? Is it wise to unlock them?

When I click on 'View Files' the folder shows as 'Empty'? See photo.

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour?

wiganken said:

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour?

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I'm on same windows build as you and it says 332 KB and it deletes fine.

maybe try clearing your web browser?

zebal said:

maybe try clearing your web browser?

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Thanks, but I already did that. I have four browsers (Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave and Edge) and all caches are cleared.

It's the lock symbol that is bugging me. Do you see a lock symbol? See main photo on my first post.

wiganken said:

Do you see a lock symbol? See main photo on my first post.

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The golden lock icon exists since ever, it doesn't mean that data is undeletable, I have it too.

What you can try next is to run dism followed by sfc.
From start menu search and run CMD (command promot) as Administrator and copy\paste and enter to run these commands on by one:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

When done:
sfc /scannow

Try booting in safe mode then doing a disk cleanup.

Also try temporarily disabling and browser extensions.

See if storage sense clean options makes any change:

zebal said:

What you can try next is to run dism followed by sfc.

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I ran those and sfc found corrupt files and repaired them but nothing changed re this problem. Thanks anyway.

cereberus said:

Try booting in safe mode then doing a disk cleanup.

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I did that and it was the same in safe mode. Thanks.

zbook said:

See if storage sense clean options makes any change:

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That didn't find any temporary files but thanks for suggestion.
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Internet searches suggest this Windows bug has been around for some time but it is random and there is no fix for it. Apparently these 'Temporary Internet Files' are phantom files that do not really exist and it is something that that people have to live with.

Just guessing here but it might explain why these 'non-files' are locked though because one cannot delete files that do not exist and it is Windows way of getting around the problem. Any thoughts on my thoughts?

Run disk cleanup as administrator

wiganken said:

Internet searches suggest this Windows bug has been around for some time but it is random and there is no fix for it.

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Indeed, there are reports with no fix or hasn't been found yet.

Another thread is here:

There is a setting 'only delete files older than 24 hours, could that be the cause?

This often happens to me as well, usually the problem appears 2-3 weeks after a fresh installation. However, in your case 0.99GB seems quite a lot.
In my experience, nothing can remove these files.
A corrective in-place upgrade used to fix it.
Non-Removable Temporary Internet Files

wiganken said:

As the title says, I can run 'Disk Clean-up' several times with 'Temporary Internet Files' selected for deletion and it still shows 0.99GB files for deletion after they are supposedly deleted in the previous run....

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This appears to be a really long-standing bug. There are no files there to delete, it's the reported size that's seems to be in error. You can either just ignore it, or there is a workaround to reset it to zero that will require a registry edit. Here's what I said in 2018...

Bree said:

This appears to be a bug. It looks like Disk Clean up is loosing track and misreporting the size of temporary internet files, rather than there actually being any temporary internet file to clear up. This has been reported on and off for over a year.

There is a known workaround that resets the count back to zero, but the apparent 'size' will eventually start to grow again. Mine currently says 6.33MB.

The workaround is to move the location of IE's cache, but there's a catch. Once moved, you cannot move it back to its default location without editing the registry. The workaround is described here...
Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums

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Disk Cleanup - Windows 10 Help Forums - post #2

@Bree - Thanks, but the workaround "The workaround is to move the location of IE's cache" did not work. I moved the location of IE's cache to 'C:\Temp\Temporary Internet Files' folder (see photo) and then restarted the PC but Disk Clean-up still 'finds' the 0.99GB as it did before.

As you say it's a very long-standing bug so I'll give up and accept that 'It is what it is' and ignore it.

Thanks to everyone for their time & effort.

Install treesize and navigate to folder containing temporary files, then select them and delete. Some files may be in use so cannot be deleted.

What kind of a bug is that where 2 people with same windows build, one has the issue and the other does not?

It can be apps running in the background which don't close down for cleaning. a classic example is allowing chrome to run in the background, especially with C Cleaner as it has to be forced to close.
After Disk Cleanup pen the Temp folder and see what files are still there and what they are that will give you a better understanding of why they are not being deleted.

zebal said:

What kind of a bug is that where 2 people with same windows build, one has the issue and the other does not?

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No bug, it just depends on what apps/software you have installed

I un-ticked 'Temporary Internet Files' in Disk Clean-up (see photo) but the next time I ran Disk Clean-up the box was ticked again?

Just an observation. It's a weird bug that ignores user changes. i.e. Moving the location for 'Temporary Internet Files' still finds 'phantom' files and un-ticking the box were both ignored.

Try replacing it with this much better cleaner

TicTac63 said:

Try replacing it with this much better cleaner

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I already do this as well. I use 'Privacy Eraser'. I found your post of great value because it led me to discover that Disk Clean-up is has been deprecated for some while now in favour of Storage Sense. This gave me a 'lightbulb' moment when I realised I will just stop using it and only use 'Privacy Eraser' and maybe other cleaners. Problem solved as far as Disk Clean-up is concerned.

Observation: CleanmgrPlus also finds the same locked files as Disk Clean-up and cannot remove them. This no longer bothers me since I will not be using CleanmgrPlus or Disk Clean-up from now on.

Thanks for your input. It has led me to conclude this thread. I'll call it 'Solved'.