diff --git a/surfsense_backend/app/routes/folders_routes.py b/surfsense_backend/app/routes/folders_routes.py
index 6e524d4a4..2dc9bceac 100644
--- a/surfsense_backend/app/routes/folders_routes.py
+++ b/surfsense_backend/app/routes/folders_routes.py
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@ async def delete_folder(
     session: AsyncSession = Depends(get_async_session),
     user: User = Depends(current_active_user),
 ):
-    """Delete a folder and cascade-delete subfolders. Documents are async-deleted via Celery."""
+    """Mark documents for deletion and dispatch Celery to delete docs first, then folders."""
     try:
         folder = await session.get(Folder, folder_id)
         if not folder:
@@ -399,30 +399,29 @@ async def delete_folder(
             )
             await session.commit()
 
-        await session.execute(Folder.__table__.delete().where(Folder.id == folder_id))
-        await session.commit()
+        try:
+            from app.tasks.celery_tasks.document_tasks import (
+                delete_folder_documents_task,
+            )
 
-        if document_ids:
-            try:
-                from app.tasks.celery_tasks.document_tasks import (
-                    delete_folder_documents_task,
-                )
-
-                delete_folder_documents_task.delay(document_ids)
-            except Exception as err:
+            delete_folder_documents_task.delay(
+                document_ids, folder_subtree_ids=list(subtree_ids)
+            )
+        except Exception as err:
+            if document_ids:
                 await session.execute(
                     Document.__table__.update()
                     .where(Document.id.in_(document_ids))
                     .values(status={"state": "ready"})
                 )
                 await session.commit()
-                raise HTTPException(
-                    status_code=503,
-                    detail="Folder deleted but document cleanup could not be queued. Documents have been restored.",
-                ) from err
+            raise HTTPException(
+                status_code=503,
+                detail="Could not queue folder deletion. Documents have been restored.",
+            ) from err
 
         return {
-            "message": "Folder deleted successfully",
+            "message": "Folder deletion started",
             "documents_queued_for_deletion": len(document_ids),
         }
 
diff --git a/surfsense_backend/app/tasks/celery_tasks/document_tasks.py b/surfsense_backend/app/tasks/celery_tasks/document_tasks.py
index 110f3deee..4701d9911 100644
--- a/surfsense_backend/app/tasks/celery_tasks/document_tasks.py
+++ b/surfsense_backend/app/tasks/celery_tasks/document_tasks.py
@@ -142,21 +142,30 @@ async def _delete_document_background(document_id: int) -> None:
     retry_backoff_max=300,
     max_retries=5,
 )
-def delete_folder_documents_task(self, document_ids: list[int]):
-    """Celery task to batch-delete documents orphaned by folder deletion."""
+def delete_folder_documents_task(
+    self,
+    document_ids: list[int],
+    folder_subtree_ids: list[int] | None = None,
+):
+    """Celery task to delete documents first, then the folder rows."""
     loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
     asyncio.set_event_loop(loop)
     try:
-        loop.run_until_complete(_delete_folder_documents(document_ids))
+        loop.run_until_complete(
+            _delete_folder_documents(document_ids, folder_subtree_ids)
+        )
     finally:
         loop.close()
 
 
-async def _delete_folder_documents(document_ids: list[int]) -> None:
-    """Delete chunks in batches, then document rows for each orphaned document."""
+async def _delete_folder_documents(
+    document_ids: list[int],
+    folder_subtree_ids: list[int] | None = None,
+) -> None:
+    """Delete chunks in batches, then document rows, then folder rows."""
     from sqlalchemy import delete as sa_delete, select
 
-    from app.db import Chunk, Document
+    from app.db import Chunk, Document, Folder
 
     async with get_celery_session_maker()() as session:
         batch_size = 500
@@ -178,6 +187,12 @@ async def _delete_folder_documents(document_ids: list[int]) -> None:
                 await session.delete(doc)
                 await session.commit()
 
+        if folder_subtree_ids:
+            await session.execute(
+                sa_delete(Folder).where(Folder.id.in_(folder_subtree_ids))
+            )
+            await session.commit()
+
 
 @celery_app.task(
     name="delete_search_space_background",
diff --git a/surfsense_web/components/layout/ui/sidebar/DocumentsSidebar.tsx b/surfsense_web/components/layout/ui/sidebar/DocumentsSidebar.tsx
index f8b774d26..8dce68eeb 100644
--- a/surfsense_web/components/layout/ui/sidebar/DocumentsSidebar.tsx
+++ b/surfsense_web/components/layout/ui/sidebar/DocumentsSidebar.tsx
@@ -188,7 +188,12 @@ export function DocumentsSidebar({
 
 	const treeDocuments: DocumentNodeDoc[] = useMemo(() => {
 		const zeroDocs = (zeroAllDocs ?? [])
-			.filter((d) => d.title && d.title.trim() !== "")
+			.filter((d) => {
+				if (!d.title || d.title.trim() === "") return false;
+				const state = (d.status as { state?: string } | undefined)?.state;
+				if (state === "deleting") return false;
+				return true;
+			})
 			.map((d) => ({
 				id: d.id,
 				title: d.title,