Download attached test case zip file. Then start a JBoss instance with the standalone-full-ha.xml profile deploy the test case war file. run the test case shell script cd to the largemessages directory. See the number of files start jboss-cli and run [standalone@localhost:9990 /] /subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=default/jms-queue=responseQueue:read-resource(recursive=true,include-runtime=true,include-defaults=true) { "outcome" => "success", "result" => { "consumer-count" => 0, "dead-letter-address" => "jms.queue.DLQ", "delivering-count" => 0, "durable" => true, "entries" => [ "java:/jms/queue/responseQueue", "java:jboss/jms/queue/responseQueue", "java:jboss/exported/jms/queue/responseQueue" ], "expiry-address" => "jms.queue.ExpiryQueue", "legacy-entries" => undefined, "message-count" => 5L, "messages-added" => 49L, "paused" => false, "queue-address" => "jms.queue.responseQueue", "scheduled-count" => 0L, "selector" => undefined, "temporary" => false } } there are 5 messages on the responseQueue but there are 7 files in the largemessages directory ls -l total 120232 -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 3806.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 5321.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 6574.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 7949.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 8982.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 9282.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 9290.msg run /subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=default/jms-queue=responseQueue:remove-messages() at this point there should be no messages on the responseQueue queue and not files in the largemessages directory. But there 2 files left in the largemessages directory ls -l total 34352 -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 8982.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 tomr staff 8792877 16 Feb 10:39 9290.msg