SPIFFS "Deleting a file does not always remove the whole file, which leaves unusable sections throughout the filesystem." (IDFGH-9220)

[ivancmz]

Answers checklist.

• I have read the documentation ESP-IDF Programming Guide and the issue is not addressed there.
• I have updated my IDF branch (master or release) to the latest version and checked that the issue is present there.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a similar issue and not found a similar issue.

General issue report

The latest versions of the ESP-IDF programming guide (i.e. v4.4.3 or v5.0) on the SPIFFS Filesystem notes say the following: "Deleting a file does not always remove the whole file, which leaves unusable sections throughout the filesystem."

Am pretty sure this was not mentioned in older versions. And it's a very worrying sentence for projects relying on SPIFF for storage. Is this a bug? How often does it happen? Is there a workaround? There's not enough information on the documentation for understanding what you meant with this sentence. If anyone here can give me some feedback it would be very appreciated.