diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 83f31aca..a1cb40c6 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -7235,7 +7235,7 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   function in order to make use of this new feature. See, for instance, the function
   cSkinClassicDisplayMenu::SetButtons() in skinclassic.c for details.
 
-2012-09-29: Version 1.7.31
+2012-09-30: Version 1.7.31
 
 - If regenerating an index file fails and no data is written to the file, VDR now
   reports this error and removes the empty index file.
@@ -7264,3 +7264,10 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
 - Fixed sorting folders before recordings in case of UTF-8 (thanks to Sören Moch).
 - Reactivated stripping control characters from EPG texts and adapted it to UTF-8.
 - Added missing decrementing of 'len' in libsi/si.c's String::decodeText() functions.
+- When checking whether a video directory is empty, file names that start with a
+  dot ('.') are no longer automatically ignored and implicitly removed if the directory
+  contains no other files. Instead, RemoveEmptyDirectories() now has an additional
+  parameter that can be given a list of files that shall be ignored when considering
+  whether a directory is empty. This allows users to continue to use files such as
+  ".keep" to prevent a directory from being deleted when it is empty. Currently the
+  only file name that is ignored is ".sort".
diff --git a/recording.c b/recording.c
index dc77a84c..1eeb82d0 100644
--- a/recording.c
+++ b/recording.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: recording.c 2.63 2012/09/29 10:04:55 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: recording.c 2.64 2012/09/30 13:05:14 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include "recording.h"
@@ -107,8 +107,10 @@ void cRemoveDeletedRecordingsThread::Action(void)
             }
          r = DeletedRecordings.Next(r);
          }
-     if (deleted)
-        RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories();
+     if (deleted) {
+        const char *IgnoreFiles[] = { SORTMODEFILE, NULL };
+        RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories(IgnoreFiles);
+        }
      }
 }
 
diff --git a/tools.c b/tools.c
index 3d9c513c..26c325b6 100644
--- a/tools.c
+++ b/tools.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: tools.c 2.25 2012/08/21 10:34:37 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: tools.c 2.26 2012/09/30 13:04:14 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include "tools.h"
@@ -285,6 +285,18 @@ int64_t StrToNum(const char *s)
   return n;
 }
 
+bool StrInArray(const char *a[], const char *s)
+{
+  if (a) {
+     while (*a) {
+           if (strcmp(*a, s) == 0)
+              return true;
+           a++;
+           }
+     }
+  return false;
+}
+
 cString AddDirectory(const char *DirName, const char *FileName)
 {
   return cString::sprintf("%s/%s", DirName && *DirName ? DirName : ".", FileName);
@@ -433,9 +445,9 @@ bool RemoveFileOrDir(const char *FileName, bool FollowSymlinks)
   return true;
 }
 
-bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis)
+bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis, const char *IgnoreFiles[])
 {
-  bool HasDotFiles = false;
+  bool HasIgnoredFiles = false;
   cReadDir d(DirName);
   if (d.Ok()) {
      bool empty = true;
@@ -446,11 +458,11 @@ bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis)
               struct stat st;
               if (stat(buffer, &st) == 0) {
                  if (S_ISDIR(st.st_mode)) {
-                    if (!RemoveEmptyDirectories(buffer, true))
+                    if (!RemoveEmptyDirectories(buffer, true, IgnoreFiles))
                        empty = false;
                     }
-                 else if (*e->d_name == '.') // "dot files" don't count
-                    HasDotFiles = true;
+                 else if (RemoveThis && IgnoreFiles && StrInArray(IgnoreFiles, e->d_name))
+                    HasIgnoredFiles = true;
                  else
                     empty = false;
                  }
@@ -461,21 +473,18 @@ bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis)
               }
            }
      if (RemoveThis && empty) {
-        if (HasDotFiles) {
-           cReadDir d(DirName);
-           if (d.Ok()) {
-              struct dirent *e;
-              while ((e = d.Next()) != NULL) {
-                    if (*e->d_name == '.') { // for safety - should always be true
-                       cString buffer = AddDirectory(DirName, e->d_name);
-                       dsyslog("removing %s", *buffer);
-                       if (remove(buffer) < 0) {
-                          LOG_ERROR_STR(*buffer);
-                          return false;
-                          }
+        if (HasIgnoredFiles) {
+           while (*IgnoreFiles) {
+                 cString buffer = AddDirectory(DirName, *IgnoreFiles);
+                 if (access(buffer, F_OK) == 0) {
+                    dsyslog("removing %s", *buffer);
+                    if (remove(buffer) < 0) {
+                       LOG_ERROR_STR(*buffer);
+                       return false;
                        }
                     }
-              }
+                 IgnoreFiles++;
+                 }
            }
         dsyslog("removing %s", DirName);
         if (remove(DirName) < 0) {
diff --git a/tools.h b/tools.h
index b73448d3..3e546a17 100644
--- a/tools.h
+++ b/tools.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: tools.h 2.21 2012/05/20 13:58:06 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: tools.h 2.22 2012/09/30 11:02:21 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef __TOOLS_H
@@ -213,6 +213,9 @@ int64_t StrToNum(const char *s);
     ///< K, M, G or T to abbreviate Kilo-, Mega-, Giga- or Terabyte, respectively
     ///< (based on 1024). Everything after the first non-numeric character is
     ///< silently ignored, as are any characters other than the ones mentioned here.
+bool StrInArray(const char *a[], const char *s);
+    ///< Returns true if the string s is equal to one of the strings pointed
+    ///< to by the (NULL terminated) array a.
 cString itoa(int n);
 cString AddDirectory(const char *DirName, const char *FileName);
 bool EntriesOnSameFileSystem(const char *File1, const char *File2);
@@ -220,7 +223,12 @@ int FreeDiskSpaceMB(const char *Directory, int *UsedMB = NULL);
 bool DirectoryOk(const char *DirName, bool LogErrors = false);
 bool MakeDirs(const char *FileName, bool IsDirectory = false);
 bool RemoveFileOrDir(const char *FileName, bool FollowSymlinks = false);
-bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis = false);
+bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis = false, const char *IgnoreFiles[] = NULL);
+     ///< Removes all empty directories under the given directory DirName.
+     ///< If RemoveThis is true, DirName will also be removed if it is empty.
+     ///< IgnoreFiles can be set to an array of file names that will be ignored when
+     ///< considering whether a directory is empty. If IgnoreFiles is given, the array
+     ///< must end with a NULL pointer.
 int DirSizeMB(const char *DirName); ///< returns the total size of the files in the given directory, or -1 in case of an error
 char *ReadLink(const char *FileName); ///< returns a new string allocated on the heap, which the caller must delete (or NULL in case of an error)
 bool SpinUpDisk(const char *FileName);
diff --git a/videodir.c b/videodir.c
index c64a5c65..d39ab051 100644
--- a/videodir.c
+++ b/videodir.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: videodir.c 2.3 2012/09/01 10:57:44 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: videodir.c 2.4 2012/09/30 12:06:33 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include "videodir.h"
@@ -229,11 +229,11 @@ cString PrefixVideoFileName(const char *FileName, char Prefix)
   return NULL;
 }
 
-void RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories(void)
+void RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories(const char *IgnoreFiles[])
 {
   cVideoDirectory Dir;
   do {
-     RemoveEmptyDirectories(Dir.Name());
+     RemoveEmptyDirectories(Dir.Name(), false, IgnoreFiles);
      } while (Dir.Next());
 }
 
diff --git a/videodir.h b/videodir.h
index 40d7b058..a25ac319 100644
--- a/videodir.h
+++ b/videodir.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: videodir.h 2.2 2012/09/01 10:57:07 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: videodir.h 2.3 2012/09/30 11:01:15 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef __VIDEODIR_H
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ bool RemoveVideoFile(const char *FileName);
 bool VideoFileSpaceAvailable(int SizeMB);
 int VideoDiskSpace(int *FreeMB = NULL, int *UsedMB = NULL); // returns the used disk space in percent
 cString PrefixVideoFileName(const char *FileName, char Prefix);
-void RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories(void);
+void RemoveEmptyVideoDirectories(const char *IgnoreFiles[] = NULL);
 bool IsOnVideoDirectoryFileSystem(const char *FileName);
 
 class cVideoDiskUsage {