Can I delete these build folders when I am not running Android Studio?

Question

I am backing up android studio projects in google drive and I found that the build folders contain thousands of files, so google drive ends up tired.

My practice is that I run the 'clean project' command in Android Studio before exiting so that the unnecessary files are cleaned and only the important files remain to be backed up. But still sometimes the build folder remains there with many files.

My question is that if I delete these two build folders manually (see screenshot), will my project rebuild again on next startup, or will it mess up my project?

Answer 1

will my project rebuild again on next startup

Yes. For situations where backups are expensive in terms of space, time, or money, follow the rules for what goes into version control (e.g., git), and back up only those things.

Answer 2

If you are using a unix based OS you might be able to run following command using terminal:

 find . -name build -exec rm -rf {} \; 

which causes to delete all build folders inside a specific folder.