diff --git a/utils/fs/operations.cpp b/utils/fs/operations.cpp
index a4461c1..bdc23b9 100644
--- utils/fs/operations.cpp
+++ utils/fs/operations.cpp
@@ -356,7 +356,10 @@ recursive_cleanup(const fs::path& current_path, const struct ::stat& parent_sb)
 {
     bool ok = true;
 
-    ok &= try_unprotect(current_path);
+    // Weakening the protections of a file is just a best-effort operation.
+    // If this fails, we may still be able to do the file/directory removal
+    // later on, so ignore any failures from try_unprotect().
+    (void)try_unprotect(current_path);
 
     const optional< struct ::stat > current_sb = try_stat(current_path);
     if (!current_sb)