Magento delete empty categories and sub-categories

Remove all empty categories and sub-categories in Magento. When there are empty categories, the website shows empty page in those categories in frontend. Create a file in the magento root, I will name it rmvEmptyCats.php, with following code:

	require "app/Mage.php";
	umask(0);
	Mage::app();

	$categoryCollection = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection()
	->addFieldToFilter('level', array('gteq' => 2)); //greater than root category id

	foreach($categoryCollection as $category) {
	if ($category->getProductCount() === 0) {
	$category->delete();
	}
	}

	echo 'Empty Categories Deleted!';

Now you can easily run it by navigating to http://loca.lho.st/rmvEmptyCats.php and wait for the message Empty Categories Deleted!

Note that this is going to DELETE those categories with zero product count.

4 Comments

Mayur December 17, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Hi,
I copied the above code, and created an empty php file in notepad and renamed it to what you have – rmvEmptyCats.php
Uploaded it to my root, went to my host and nothing happens – blank page
Please advise.
Thanks
Reply
Marijn January 19, 2015 at 11:37 am
Same here!
Reply
Priyank Goswami October 15, 2016 at 12:00 am
Mage::register(‘isSecureArea’, true);
add above code to line No. 4, otherwise it will throws exception “Cannot complete this operation from non-admin area.”
Reply
- Huw Manatee December 5, 2016 at 9:38 am
  Hi Priyank,
  I’m getting a 500 error. I’ve added your code to line 4 but it’s still throwing the error:
  Got error ‘PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception ‘Mage_Core_Exception’ with message ‘Cannot complete this operation from non-admin area.’
  Any ideas why?
  Reply