diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index b5ea4586750..71ae951b076 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -1437,8 +1437,6 @@ function purge_all_caches() {
     // hack: this script may get called after the purifier was initialised,
     // but we do not want to verify repeatedly this exists in each call
     make_cache_directory('htmlpurifier');
-
-    clearstatcache();
 }
 
 /**
@@ -9867,9 +9865,12 @@ function remove_dir($dir, $content_only=false) {
     }
     closedir($handle);
     if ($content_only) {
+        clearstatcache(); // make sure file stat cache is properly invalidated
         return $result;
     }
-    return rmdir($dir); // if anything left the result will be false, no need for && $result
+    $result = rmdir($dir); // if anything left the result will be false, no need for && $result
+    clearstatcache(); // make sure file stat cache is properly invalidated
+    return $result;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/lib/setuplib.php b/lib/setuplib.php
index 205cd3229e7..c206d10fb68 100644
--- a/lib/setuplib.php
+++ b/lib/setuplib.php
@@ -1077,6 +1077,10 @@ function redirect_if_major_upgrade_required() {
  * files outside of dataroot if you supply custom paths for some settings in config.php.
  * This function does not verify that the directory is writable.
  *
+ * NOTE: this function uses current file stat cache,
+ *       please use clearstatcache() before this if you expect that the
+ *       directories may have been removed recently from a different request.
+ *
  * @param string $dir absolute directory path
  * @param boolean $create directory if does not exist
  * @param boolean $recursive create directory recursively
diff --git a/theme/image.php b/theme/image.php
index a1a2e66b360..63acfaf0053 100644
--- a/theme/image.php
+++ b/theme/image.php
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ if ($rev > -1) {
     $pathinfo = pathinfo($imagefile);
     $cacheimage = "$candidatelocation/$image.".$pathinfo['extension'];
     if (!file_exists($cacheimage)) {
+        // note: cache reset might have purged our cache dir structure,
+        //       make sure we do not use stale file stat cache in the next check_dir_exists()
+        clearstatcache();
         check_dir_exists(dirname($cacheimage));
         copy($imagefile, $cacheimage);
     }
diff --git a/theme/javascript.php b/theme/javascript.php
index afe5d013124..3ebba8bb191 100644
--- a/theme/javascript.php
+++ b/theme/javascript.php
@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ require_once('Minify.php');
 $theme = theme_config::load($themename);
 
 if ($rev > -1) {
+    // note: cache reset might have purged our cache dir structure,
+    //       make sure we do not use stale file stat cache in the next check_dir_exists()
+    clearstatcache();
     check_dir_exists(dirname($candidate));
     $fp = fopen($candidate, 'w');
     fwrite($fp, minify($theme->javascript_files($type)));
diff --git a/theme/styles.php b/theme/styles.php
index 909bfb5468c..67385e3de09 100644
--- a/theme/styles.php
+++ b/theme/styles.php
@@ -117,6 +117,9 @@ send_cached_css($candidatesheet, $rev);
 
 function store_css(theme_config $theme, $csspath, $cssfiles) {
     $css = $theme->post_process(minify($cssfiles));
+    // note: cache reset might have purged our cache dir structure,
+    //       make sure we do not use stale file stat cache in the next check_dir_exists()
+    clearstatcache();
     check_dir_exists(dirname($csspath));
     $fp = fopen($csspath, 'w');
     fwrite($fp, $css);