diff --git a/build/dependencies.yaml b/build/dependencies.yaml
index 080b470422b..62fe217b80c 100644
--- a/build/dependencies.yaml
+++ b/build/dependencies.yaml
@@ -50,12 +50,8 @@ dependencies:
       match: etcd_docker_tag|etcd_version
     - path: build/workspace.bzl
       match: ETCD_VERSION
-    - path: cluster/gce/manifests/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml
-      match: k8s.gcr.io/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup
     - path: cluster/gce/upgrade-aliases.sh
       match: ETCD_IMAGE|ETCD_VERSION
-    - path: cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Makefile
-      match: ETCD_VERSION|TAG
     - path: cluster/images/etcd/Makefile
       match: BUNDLED_ETCD_VERSIONS\?|LATEST_ETCD_VERSION\?
     - path: cluster/images/etcd/migrate-if-needed.sh
@@ -100,8 +96,6 @@ dependencies:
       match: BASEIMAGE\?\=us\.gcr\.io\/k8s-artifacts-prod\/build-image\/debian-base-ppc64le:v\d+\.\d+\.\d+
     - path: cluster/images/etcd/Makefile
       match: BASEIMAGE\?\=us\.gcr\.io\/k8s-artifacts-prod\/build-image\/debian-base-s390x:v\d+\.\d+\.\d+
-    - path: cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Dockerfile
-      match: us\.gcr\.io\/k8s-artifacts-prod\/build-image\/debian-base:v\d+\.\d+\.\d+
 
   - name: "k8s.gcr.io/debian-iptables"
     version: 12.1.0
diff --git a/build/lib/release.sh b/build/lib/release.sh
index ec03f90dd49..dae9c21c8e5 100644
--- a/build/lib/release.sh
+++ b/build/lib/release.sh
@@ -434,7 +434,6 @@ function kube::release::package_kube_manifests_tarball() {
   cp "${src_dir}/kube-controller-manager.manifest" "${dst_dir}"
   cp "${src_dir}/kube-addon-manager.yaml" "${dst_dir}"
   cp "${src_dir}/glbc.manifest" "${dst_dir}"
-  cp "${src_dir}/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml" "${dst_dir}/"
   find "${src_dir}" -name 'internal-*' -exec cp {} "${dst_dir}" \;
   cp "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh" "${dst_dir}/gci-configure-helper.sh"
   cp "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/gce/gci/configure-kubeapiserver.sh" "${dst_dir}/configure-kubeapiserver.sh"
diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index a9d0da9aa9f..c939362c06c 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -1682,11 +1682,6 @@ function prepare-etcd-manifest {
   mv "${temp_file}" /etc/kubernetes/manifests
 }
 
-function start-etcd-empty-dir-cleanup-pod {
-  local -r src_file="${KUBE_HOME}/kube-manifests/kubernetes/gci-trusty/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml"
-  cp "${src_file}" "/etc/kubernetes/manifests"
-}
-
 # Starts etcd server pod (and etcd-events pod if needed).
 # More specifically, it prepares dirs and files, sets the variable value
 # in the manifests, and copies them to /etc/kubernetes/manifests.
@@ -2929,7 +2924,6 @@ function main() {
     compute-master-manifest-variables
     if [[ -z "${ETCD_SERVERS:-}" ]]; then
       start-etcd-servers
-      start-etcd-empty-dir-cleanup-pod
     fi
     source ${KUBE_BIN}/configure-kubeapiserver.sh
     start-kube-apiserver
diff --git a/cluster/gce/manifests/BUILD b/cluster/gce/manifests/BUILD
index 9c7379aa26b..0e6f7f5a51d 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/manifests/BUILD
+++ b/cluster/gce/manifests/BUILD
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ filegroup(
         "abac-authz-policy.jsonl",
         "cluster-autoscaler.manifest",
         "etcd.manifest",
-        "etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml",
         "glbc.manifest",
         "konnectivity-server.yaml",
         "kube-addon-manager.yaml",
diff --git a/cluster/gce/manifests/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml b/cluster/gce/manifests/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index a1bc8f96464..00000000000
--- a/cluster/gce/manifests/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-apiVersion: v1
-kind: Pod
-metadata:
-  name: etcd-empty-dir-cleanup
-  namespace: kube-system
-  annotations:
-    seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io/pod: 'docker/default'
-  labels:
-    k8s-app: etcd-empty-dir-cleanup
-spec:
-  priorityClassName: system-node-critical
-  priority: 2000001000
-  hostNetwork: true
-  dnsPolicy: Default
-  containers:
-  - name: etcd-empty-dir-cleanup
-    image: k8s.gcr.io/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup:3.4.7.0
diff --git a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Dockerfile b/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Dockerfile
deleted file mode 100644
index 37e2ebefb4e..00000000000
--- a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Dockerfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-FROM us.gcr.io/k8s-artifacts-prod/build-image/debian-base:v2.1.0
-
-COPY etcdctl etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh /
-RUN chmod a+rx /etcdctl /etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh
-
-ENV ETCDCTL /etcdctl
-ENV SLEEP_SECOND 3600
-
-USER nobody:nogroup
-
-ENTRYPOINT ["/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh"]
diff --git a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Makefile b/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Makefile
deleted file mode 100644
index 9caa5494d76..00000000000
--- a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/Makefile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-.PHONY:	build push
-
-ETCD_VERSION = 3.4.7
-# Image should be pulled from k8s.gcr.io, which will auto-detect
-# region (us, eu, asia, ...) and pull from the closest.
-REGISTRY = k8s.gcr.io
-# Images should be pushed to staging-k8s.gcr.io.
-PUSH_REGISTRY = staging-k8s.gcr.io
-TAG = 3.4.7.1
-
-clean:
-	rm -rf etcdctl etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64 etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64.tar.gz
-
-build: clean
-	curl -L -O https://github.com/coreos/etcd/releases/download/v$(ETCD_VERSION)/etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64.tar.gz
-	tar xzvf etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64.tar.gz
-	cp etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64/etcdctl .
-	docker build --pull -t $(REGISTRY)/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup:$(TAG) .
-	rm -rf etcdctl etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64 etcd-v$(ETCD_VERSION)-linux-amd64.tar.gz
-
-push: build
-	docker tag $(REGISTRY)/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup:$(TAG) $(PUSH_REGISTRY)/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup:$(TAG)
-	docker push $(PUSH_REGISTRY)/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup:$(TAG)
diff --git a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/OWNERS b/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/OWNERS
deleted file mode 100644
index 3ea81fac109..00000000000
--- a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/OWNERS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# See the OWNERS docs at https://go.k8s.io/owners
-
-labels:
-- sig/api-machinery
diff --git a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh b/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 37da93f7e00..00000000000
--- a/cluster/images/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup/etcd-empty-dir-cleanup.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-echo "Removing empty directories from etcd..."
-
-cleanup_empty_dirs () {
-  if [ "$("${ETCDCTL}" ls "${1}")" ]; then
-    for SUBDIR in $("${ETCDCTL}" ls -p "${1}" | grep "/$")
-    do
-      cleanup_empty_dirs "${SUBDIR}"
-    done
-  else
-    echo "Removing empty key $1 ..."
-    "${ETCDCTL}" rmdir "${1}"
-  fi
-}
-
-while true
-do
-  echo "Starting cleanup..."
-  cleanup_empty_dirs "/registry"
-  echo "Done with cleanup."
-  sleep "${SLEEP_SECOND}"
-done