diff --git a/crates/cargo-util/src/paths.rs b/crates/cargo-util/src/paths.rs
index 5e153de04cc..4a917821b7e 100644
--- a/crates/cargo-util/src/paths.rs
+++ b/crates/cargo-util/src/paths.rs
@@ -413,11 +413,22 @@ fn _create_dir_all(p: &Path) -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
-/// Recursively remove all files and directories at the given directory.
+/// Equivalent to [`std::fs::remove_dir_all`] with better error messages.
 ///
 /// This does *not* follow symlinks.
 pub fn remove_dir_all<P: AsRef<Path>>(p: P) -> Result<()> {
-    _remove_dir_all(p.as_ref())
+    _remove_dir_all(p.as_ref()).or_else(|prev_err| {
+        // `std::fs::remove_dir_all` is highly specialized for different platforms
+        // and may be more reliable than a simple walk. We try the walk first in
+        // order to report more detailed errors.
+        fs::remove_dir_all(p.as_ref()).with_context(|| {
+            format!(
+                "{:?}\n\nError: failed to remove directory `{}`",
+                prev_err,
+                p.as_ref().display(),
+            )
+        })
+    })
 }
 
 fn _remove_dir_all(p: &Path) -> Result<()> {
diff --git a/src/cargo/ops/cargo_clean.rs b/src/cargo/ops/cargo_clean.rs
index de3139c9947..b9b33690e45 100644
--- a/src/cargo/ops/cargo_clean.rs
+++ b/src/cargo/ops/cargo_clean.rs
@@ -297,7 +297,12 @@ fn rm_rf(path: &Path, config: &Config, progress: &mut dyn CleaningProgressBar) -
         let entry = entry?;
         progress.on_clean()?;
         if entry.file_type().is_dir() {
-            paths::remove_dir(entry.path()).with_context(|| "could not remove build directory")?;
+            // The contents should have been removed by now, but sometimes a race condition is hit
+            // where other files have been added by the OS. `paths::remove_dir_all` also falls back
+            // to `std::fs::remove_dir_all`, which may be more reliable than a simple walk in
+            // platform-specific edge cases.
+            paths::remove_dir_all(entry.path())
+                .with_context(|| "could not remove build directory")?;
         } else {
             paths::remove_file(entry.path()).with_context(|| "failed to remove build artifact")?;
         }