diff --git a/lib/remote_storage/swift.rb b/lib/remote_storage/swift.rb
index b815ca3..4a64d13 100644
--- a/lib/remote_storage/swift.rb
+++ b/lib/remote_storage/swift.rb
@@ -453,8 +453,12 @@ module RemoteStorage
     end
 
     def dir_empty?(user, dir)
-      do_get_request("#{container_url_for(user)}/?format=plain&limit=1&path=#{escape(dir)}/") do |res|
-        return res.headers[:content_length] == "0"
+      if directory_backend(user).match /new/
+        redis.smembers("rs_meta:#{user}:#{dir}/:items").empty?
+      else
+        do_get_request("#{container_url_for(user)}/?format=plain&limit=1&path=#{escape(dir)}/") do |res|
+          return res.headers[:content_length] == "0"
+        end
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/swift/app_spec.rb b/spec/swift/app_spec.rb
index ac0b41a..dc51ee4 100644
--- a/spec/swift/app_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/swift/app_spec.rb
@@ -157,11 +157,9 @@ describe "App" do
 
       it "deletes the metadata object in redis" do
         put_stub = OpenStruct.new(headers: {etag: "bla"})
-        RemoteStorage::Swift.stub_any_instance :dir_empty?, false do
-          RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
-            RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
-              delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
-            end
+        RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
+          RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
+            delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
           end
         end
 
@@ -173,11 +171,9 @@ describe "App" do
         old_metadata = redis.hgetall "rs_meta:phil:food/"
 
         put_stub = OpenStruct.new(headers: {etag: "newetag"})
-        RemoteStorage::Swift.stub_any_instance :dir_empty?, false do
-          RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
-            RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
-              delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
-            end
+        RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
+          RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
+            delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
           end
         end
 
@@ -195,16 +191,9 @@ describe "App" do
 
       it "deletes the parent directory objects metadata when deleting all items" do
         put_stub = OpenStruct.new(headers: {etag: "bla"})
-        RemoteStorage::Swift.stub_any_instance :dir_empty?, false do
-          RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
-            RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
-              delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
-            end
-          end
-        end
-
-        RemoteStorage::Swift.stub_any_instance :dir_empty?, true do
+        RestClient.stub :put, put_stub do
           RestClient.stub :delete, "" do
+            delete "/phil/food/aguacate"
             delete "/phil/food/camaron"
           end
         end