SPJeff

Recently I needed to empty an InfoPath Form Library by deleting all of the items and skipping Recycle Bin.  Datasheet view is great for small lists (a few hundred rows) but it doesn’t perform as well on large lists.  Also, skipping the Recycle Bin is a unique requirement best handled with server side code.  See the below PowerShell script for how to easily “empty” any SharePoint list or library.  This works with both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007).  NOTE – Use this script carefully, it is really good at deleting. 

# SharePoint On-Premise
Add-PSSnapIn Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
$web = Get-SPWeb "http://sitename/"
$list = $web.Lists["Shared Documents"]
$caml=""
#optional filter
$query=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery
$query.ViewAttributes = "Scope='Recursive'"
$query.Query=$caml
$items=$list.GetItems($query)
Write-Host $items.Count
$items | % { $list.GetItemById($_.Id).Delete() }
$web.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()

# SharePoint Online (SPO)
$webUrl = "https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/team"
$listTitle = "Shared Documents"
Connect-PnPOnline –Url $webUrl -UseWebLogin
$l = Get-PnPList $listTitle
$items = Get-PnPListItem -List $listTitle -PageSize 500
$batch = New-PnPBatch
foreach ($item in $items) {
$item.ID
Remove-PnPListItem -List $l -Identity $item.Id -Batch $batch
}
Invoke-PnPBatch -Batch $batch