diff --git a/src/modules/directoryCleaner.ts b/src/modules/directoryCleaner.ts
index 3e9d13a9c..9a9577164 100644
--- a/src/modules/directoryCleaner.ts
+++ b/src/modules/directoryCleaner.ts
@@ -63,10 +63,14 @@ export default class DirectoryCleaner extends Module {
     }
 
     try {
-      const emptyDirs = await DirectoryCleaner.getEmptyDirs(dirsToClean);
-      await this.progressBar.reset(emptyDirs.length);
-      this.progressBar.logTrace(`cleaning ${emptyDirs.length.toLocaleString()} empty director${emptyDirs.length !== 1 ? 'ies' : 'y'}`);
-      await this.trashOrDelete(emptyDirs);
+      let emptyDirs = await DirectoryCleaner.getEmptyDirs(dirsToClean);
+      while (emptyDirs.length > 0) {
+        await this.progressBar.reset(emptyDirs.length);
+        this.progressBar.logTrace(`cleaning ${emptyDirs.length.toLocaleString()} empty director${emptyDirs.length !== 1 ? 'ies' : 'y'}`);
+        await this.trashOrDelete(emptyDirs);
+        // Deleting some empty directories could leave others newly empty
+        emptyDirs = await DirectoryCleaner.getEmptyDirs(dirsToClean);
+      }
     } catch (error) {
       this.progressBar.logError(`failed to clean empty directories: ${error}`);
     }
diff --git a/src/polyfill/fsPoly.ts b/src/polyfill/fsPoly.ts
index 3c9996fb1..cb227128f 100644
--- a/src/polyfill/fsPoly.ts
+++ b/src/polyfill/fsPoly.ts
@@ -306,11 +306,11 @@ export default class FsPoly {
 
     try {
       await fs.promises.access(pathLike); // throw if file doesn't exist
-    } catch (error) {
+    } catch {
       if (optionsWithRetry?.force) {
         return;
       }
-      throw error;
+      throw new Error(`can't rm, path doesn't exist: ${pathLike}`);
     }
 
     if (await this.isDirectory(pathLike)) {
diff --git a/test/modules/directoryCleaner.test.ts b/test/modules/directoryCleaner.test.ts
index 1026fc339..dd19f45de 100644
--- a/test/modules/directoryCleaner.test.ts
+++ b/test/modules/directoryCleaner.test.ts
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ async function runOutputCleaner(
   const after = await fsPoly.walk(tempDir);
 
   // Test cleanup
-  await fsPoly.rm(tempDir, { recursive: true });
+  await fsPoly.rm(tempDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
 
   return after
     .map((pathLike) => pathLike.replace(tempDir + path.sep, ''))