RemoveFolderEx no longer working with WiX v4

[johncalls]

I've recently converted a WiX v3 installer project (that is running as part of a bundle) into a WiX v4 (together with the bundle project). The installer project is using RemoveFolderEx and works as expected with v3 but no longer removes the specified folders with v4. RemoveFolderEx is configured for uninstall.

Excerpt of the logs from the v3 uninstall:

[...]
Doing action: WixRemoveFoldersEx
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:21:17: ValidateProductID. Return value 1.
Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI493E.tmp, Entrypoint: WixRemoveFoldersEx
Generating random cookie.
Created Custom Action Server with PID 6820 (0x1AA4).
Running as a service.
Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.
Action start 15:21:17: WixRemoveFoldersEx.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_0 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\.delete\'.
Note: 1: 2262 2: RemoveFile 3: -2147287038 
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_1 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_2 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\local.d\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_3 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_4 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\'.
WixRemoveFoldersEx:  Recursing path: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\ for row: wrf183342C65A2496B5B4C30B9601A9E03B.
Doing action: CostInitialize
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:21:18: WixRemoveFoldersEx. Return value 1.
[...]

And

[...]
Doing action: RemoveFiles
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:21:18: UnpublishFeatures. Return value 1.
Action start 15:21:18: RemoveFiles.
Counted 5 foreign folders to be removed.
Removing foreign folder: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\.delete\
Removing foreign folder: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\
Removing foreign folder: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\local.d\
Removing foreign folder: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\
Removing foreign folder: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\
Doing action: RegisterUser
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:21:18: RemoveFiles. Return value 1.
[...]

v4 excerpt:

[...]
Doing action: Wix4RemoveFoldersEx_X64
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:12:12: ValidateProductID. Return value 1.
Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSICA80.tmp, Entrypoint: WixRemoveFoldersEx
Generating random cookie.
Created Custom Action Server with PID 16796 (0x419C).
Running as a service.
Hello, I'm your 64bit Impersonated custom action server.
Action start 15:12:12: Wix4RemoveFoldersEx_X64.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_0 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\.delete\'.
Note: 1: 2262 2: RemoveFile 3: -2147287038 
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_1 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\data\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_2 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\local.d\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_3 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\etc\'.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding _APPLICATIONFOLDER_4 property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\'.
WixRemoveFoldersEx:  Recursing path: C:\Program Files\aaa\bbb\ for row: wrf6FmqHFCXsrIPfeXOsF9TPaL99pg.
Doing action: CostInitialize
Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: ActionText 
Action ended 15:12:12: Wix4RemoveFoldersEx_X64. Return value 1.
[...]

Any idea what's happening here? If the provided logs are inconclusive, please let me know.

[johncalls]

Forgot to mention, the v4 logs do not contain any Doing action: RemoveFiles as seen in the v3 logs.

[johncalls]

I've made a bit of progress here.

For some background, the installer using RemoveFolderEx does not do anything else but removing files, so it's essentially:

<Component Id="FolderRemoval" Guid="3A6F7EC9-13A5-43A5-A975-859EDDBDD109" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
  <RegistryValue Root="HKLM" Key="SOFTWARE\[Manufacturer]\[ProductName]" Name="InstallFolder" Value="[INSTALLFOLDER_PROP]" />
  <util:RemoveFolderEx On="both" Property="REMOVEPROP" />
</Component>

And this worked fine with WiX v3.

However, with WiX v4, it looks like this is no longer valid. It does work if the component does have "something to do" (sorry for the lack of a better explanation), for example, contains a File or a RemoveFile element (which wouldn't actually be required by that the installer is meant to accomplish):

<Component Id="FolderRemoval" Guid="3A6F7EC9-13A5-43A5-A975-859EDDBDD109" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
  <RegistryValue Root="HKLM" Key="SOFTWARE\[Manufacturer]\[ProductName]" Name="RemoveFolder" Value="C:\Program Files\aaa" />
  <util:RemoveFolderEx On="uninstall" Property="REMOVEPROP" />
  <RemoveFile Id="AnotherRemove" On="uninstall" Name="*.*" />
</Component>

Is this expected with WiX v4? Comparing the source of RemoveFolderEx of v3 with v4, I'm not sure I understand where the change in behaviour is coming from.

[barnson]

There were no fundamental changes in RemoveFolderEx between WiX v3 and v4. Please open a bug with a minimal repro and I can take a look.

[johncalls]

Thanks @barnson, bug is created: #8199.