diff --git a/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_delete_test.go b/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_delete_test.go
index 9176ce38c..ab57dee2c 100644
--- a/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_delete_test.go
+++ b/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_delete_test.go
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ func TestBucketHasUserObjects_EmptyDirectories(t *testing.T) {
 			wantHasUser: true,
 		},
 		{
-			name: "bucket with only reserved folders (.uploads, *.versions)",
+			name: "empty *.versions folder and .uploads do not count",
 			entriesByDir: map[string][]*filer_pb.Entry{
 				"/buckets/b": {
 					{Name: s3_constants.MultipartUploadsFolder, IsDirectory: true},
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ func TestBucketHasUserObjects_EmptyDirectories(t *testing.T) {
 			wantHasUser: false,
 		},
 		{
-			name: "nested versions-named directories are internal",
+			name: "nested versions directory with stored versions counts",
 			entriesByDir: map[string][]*filer_pb.Entry{
 				"/buckets/b": {
 					{Name: "logs", IsDirectory: true},
@@ -174,6 +174,19 @@ func TestBucketHasUserObjects_EmptyDirectories(t *testing.T) {
 					{Name: "v1", IsDirectory: false},
 				},
 			},
+			wantHasUser: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "nested versions directory left empty does not count",
+			entriesByDir: map[string][]*filer_pb.Entry{
+				"/buckets/b": {
+					{Name: "logs", IsDirectory: true},
+				},
+				"/buckets/b/logs": {
+					{Name: "foo" + s3_constants.VersionsFolder, IsDirectory: true},
+				},
+				"/buckets/b/logs/foo" + s3_constants.VersionsFolder: {},
+			},
 			wantHasUser: false,
 		},
 		{
diff --git a/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_handlers.go b/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_handlers.go
index a2ec2dfdb..f6b1d32dd 100644
--- a/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_handlers.go
+++ b/weed/s3api/s3api_bucket_handlers.go
@@ -521,8 +521,9 @@ func (s3a *S3ApiServer) DeleteBucketHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Reque
 }
 
 // bucketHasUserObjects checks whether a bucket contains any user objects.
-// Empty directories left behind by deleted objects and internal folders
-// (.uploads, *.versions) do not count as user objects.
+// Empty directories left behind by deleted objects and the .uploads staging
+// folder do not count as user objects; stored versions inside a <key>.versions
+// directory do.
 func (s3a *S3ApiServer) bucketHasUserObjects(bucket string) (bool, error) {
 	return s3a.dirHasUserObjects(s3a.option.BucketsPath + "/" + bucket)
 }
@@ -556,9 +557,10 @@ func (s3a *S3ApiServer) dirHasUserObjects(root string) (bool, error) {
 				if entry.IsDirectoryKeyObject() {
 					return true, nil
 				}
-				// Internal folders are skipped by object listing at every level,
-				// so a directory with a reserved name never counts.
-				if isReservedDirectoryName(entry.Name) {
+				// Multipart staging folders are invisible to object listing at
+				// every level, so they never count. A <key>.versions directory
+				// is descended into since it may still hold stored versions.
+				if entry.Name == s3_constants.MultipartUploadsFolder {
 					continue
 				}
 				dirs = append(dirs, dir+"/"+entry.Name)