TLDR

This post explains how to delete all files in a Cloudflare R2 bucket using rclone instead of the web UI or AWS CLI.

Quick steps:

  1. Get credentials: Create an Account API Token in R2 dashboard with "Object Read & Write" permission
  2. Configure rclone: Add R2 credentials to ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf with type=s3, provider=Cloudflare
  3. Delete files: Run rclone delete r2:/bucket-name/ -P

Object storage services do not allow deleting a bucket without deleting all the files in it first. R2's web UI doesn't have a "Select All" button that would make deletion a simple 2-click process. If you have tons and tons of files, the web UI becomes impractical for bucket cleanup.

Cloudflare suggests using the AWS CLI, but I prefer rclone (https://rclone.org/) because it provides a unified interface for many cloud services - not just object storage like MinIO, S3, and Backblaze B2, but also services like Google Photos and Google Drive. For example, I've used rclone to upload photos to Google Photos and download files from Google Drive.

rclone has a massive list of services that it supports. See here - https://rclone.org/#providers. Install rclone (guide: https://rclone.org/install/) and let's begin by creating an access key for your bucket.

Get the Access key

  • On the web UI, go to R2's dashboard and on the top right you should see "Manage API tokens" button.
  • Create an Account API Token (not the User API Token). You need to select "Object Read & Write" permission with the correct bucket.
  • On the next page, you should see the Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key. Keep note of them and also the endpoint - we'll need them in a while.

cloudflare r2 access keys

Setup rclone

You can either use the setup wizard using the rclone config command or just use this template and place it in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf.

[r2]
type = s3
provider = Cloudflare
access_key_id = 6b82af45b9a94e281cd5ba7b111b68fe
secret_access_key = 61f58485d481ad5980635c388e5740f9a8abf94ab5b5acc442c1effb08a081b6
endpoint = https://5bdd9766a7ad14ae145db477f519gs21.r2.cloudflarestorage.com

Verify that the config was created properly.

rclone listremotes --long
r2:                  s3

Emptying the bucket

My bucket is named longhorn so this is the command I ran. The -P flag shows the progress.

rclone delete r2:/longhorn/ -P
Transferred:              0 B / 0 B, -, 0 B/s, ETA -
Checks:                29 / 37, 78%, Listed 100
Deleted:               37 (files), 0 (dirs), 41.254 MiB (freed)
Elapsed time:         1.5s
Checking:
 * backups/backupstore/vo…c759acc982e2aff860.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…f23cab54f4acad0772.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…f27e50d08a22c62ab5.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…e80924cddebd00517b.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…92910deb42c89ff38f.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…6262258659adcdee58.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…f3ebd0010bfda1e995.blk: deleting
 * backups/backupstore/vo…606dd94efb994185b1.blk: deleting