diff --git a/bin/compose b/bin/compose
index ad1f211..c4315bb 100755
--- a/bin/compose
+++ b/bin/compose
@@ -353,7 +353,10 @@ clean_unused_sessions() {
     for f in "$SESSION_DIR/"*; do
         [ -e "$f" ] || continue
         is_volume_used "$f" && continue
-        rm -f "$f"
+        ## XXXvlab: the second rmdir should not be useful
+        rm -f "$f" >/dev/null || rmdir "$f" >/dev/null || {
+            debug "Unexpected session remnants $f"
+        }
     done
 }