Delete Update Cache folder in SQL Server

Problem:-
You got a disk space issue in C drive for more than one production server because of the bad configuration you had inherited.

Or

if you got a question from your system admin about that update cache folder if you needed or not seeking Clean up by this question?

Solution:-

Simple answer Yes you can safely delete without any impact or downtime to SQL Server.

But

there is a consequence for that action you need to be aware. If you delete cached the folder you can’t uninstall SQL server update and that may be important if you had any compatibility issue with the application of any of featured not supported by the application so in that case, you need to uninstall.

So as a short answer if there is no plan to uninstall SQL server updates, you can safely remove update Cache folder

Find SQL Server Update Cache folder Path Using Powershell: -

gci 'c:\*Update Cache' -Recurse

Update Cache Location:-

Remove SQL Server Cached Update folders Using Powershell:-

gci 'c:\*Update Cache' -Recurse | Remove-Item -verbose

Now Let Check after Removing Update Cache folder

Find SQL Server Installed Update Using GUI:-

As you can See in below Test after removing Service Pack Update Folder (KB4052908) we can’t uninstall SP

TEST after restoring SP folder again now we can uninstall SP Normal because of SP Folder available 

I hope that informative for you, please share it if liked it and if you had any comment let me know in the comment section.

Happy Troubleshooting 😃 

Ref:-

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3196535/description-of-the-update-cache-folder-in-sql-server