# Does removeChild removes ALL content?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/does-removechild-removes-all-content/284656>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [March 21, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/does-removechild-removes-all-content/284656 "2009-03-21T19:48:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![harm\_less](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bc8723/32.png) [@harm\_less](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/harm_less)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/does-removechild-removes-all-content/284656/1 "2009-03-21T19:48:29Z")

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Hello,

I was wondering if you remove a child with “removeChild” if it removes everything what was in the movieClip.

I doesn’t remove listeners automatically (right?).  
But does it remove bitmapData (from the memory) for example? Because I don’t want to remove all bitmaps with the [Dispose](http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/flash/display/BitmapData.html#dispose%28%29).

Does it help if I initialize the garbage collector: “System.gc();”.  
It does help with removing listeners automatically, but what about other things?

On the adobe website about the [GC](http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/flash/system/System.html#gc%28%29).  
But it says:  
\*For the Flash Player debugger version and AIR applications only.  
\*But does this mean that if I play the SWF outside of Flash this GC doesn’t do anything?

Thanks in advance,  
Harm