How to Delete React App

React JS is a library created by Facebook. It became popular in early 2016 when it was announced that it would be used in the design of Instagram.

React is best known for its concept of components, easy customization, and quick setup. You can create a new project in a matter of seconds and start developing.

But when it comes to the topic of project cleanup and deleting React app, there isn't much information about this topic. That's why I decided to cover it properly in this article.

How to Delete React App

When you create a new React project, all the project files are stored inside a project directory. To delete React app, just simply delete this directory. If you get any errors during this process, try to use the terminal instead of file explorer.

Deleting React App

While the process of deleting can be straightforward, in some cases, it is not. You may see some errors popping up. And they will prevent the deletion process to finish. To handle these situations, your best bet is to use a terminal.

Deleting React App From Windows Terminal

To completely delete your project directory with all the dependencies and hidden files. Navigate one folder outside of your project directory. And run the following command.

rm my-project -r -force

Just make sure to replace my-project with your actual project name.

Deleting React App From Mac\Linux

To completely delete your project directory with all the dependencies and hidden files. Navigate one folder outside of your project directory. And run the following command.

rm -rf my-project

Just make sure to replace my-project with your actual project name.

How to Remove Create React App

In some cases, you used other packages to create your React project. One of the most popular ones is Create React App. If you want to get rid of this package as well. You can simply run the following command.

npm uninstall -g create-react-app

# or 

yarn global remove create-react-app

Concluding Thoughts

There are certain scenarios when you don't want to continue working on your React app. In these cases, deleting your React App seems like a good solution.

If you decide to delete your React app, it's important to know how to do it properly, what kind of obstacles you may face, and how to deal with them. In this article, I showed you how to delete React app completely, and how to troubleshoot any problems that may happen.

A final word of caution! If you decide to delete your React app, make sure your project is backed up. You never know, maybe you'll want to get back into it later in the future. If you want to backup your project, but don't want to waste any space on your hard drive, I suggest using Githubor any other code versioning tool.