diff --git a/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/KeyValueContainer.java b/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/KeyValueContainer.java
index b8214882f12e..5be6d20a336a 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/KeyValueContainer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/KeyValueContainer.java
@@ -664,15 +664,24 @@ private void cleanupFailedImport() {
       if (containerData.hasSchema(OzoneConsts.SCHEMA_V3)) {
         BlockUtils.removeContainerFromDB(containerData, config);
       }
-      FileUtils.deleteDirectory(new File(containerData.getMetadataPath()));
-      FileUtils.deleteDirectory(new File(containerData.getChunksPath()));
-      FileUtils.deleteDirectory(new File(getContainerData().getContainerPath()));
+      File containerDir = new File(getContainerData().getContainerPath());
+      if (containerDir.exists()) {
+        KeyValueContainerUtil.moveToDeletedContainerDir(containerData,
+            containerData.getVolume());
+        deleteDirectory(KeyValueContainerUtil.getTmpDirectoryPath(containerData,
+            containerData.getVolume()).toFile());
+      }
     } catch (Exception ex) {
       LOG.error("Failed to cleanup destination directories for container {}",
           containerData.getContainerID(), ex);
     }
   }
 
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  void deleteDirectory(File directory) throws IOException {
+    FileUtils.deleteDirectory(directory);
+  }
+
   @Override
   public void exportContainerData(OutputStream destination,
       ContainerPacker<KeyValueContainerData> packer) throws IOException {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/TestKeyValueContainer.java b/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/TestKeyValueContainer.java
index 9e66aaeb067a..6fde5a454aa2 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/TestKeyValueContainer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdds/container-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/ozone/container/keyvalue/TestKeyValueContainer.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
@@ -79,6 +80,8 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.helpers.BlockData;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.impl.ContainerDataYaml;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.impl.ContainerLayoutVersion;
+import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.interfaces.Container;
+import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.interfaces.ContainerPacker;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.interfaces.DBHandle;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.statemachine.DatanodeConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ozone.container.common.utils.DatanodeStoreCache;
@@ -492,6 +495,68 @@ public void testContainerImportExport(ContainerTestVersionInfo versionInfo)
     }
   }
 
+  @ContainerTestVersionInfo.ContainerTest
+  public void testFailedImportCleanupMovesContainerBeforeDelete(
+      ContainerTestVersionInfo versionInfo) throws Exception {
+    init(versionInfo);
+
+    HddsVolume containerVolume = volumeChoosingPolicy.chooseVolume(
+        StorageVolumeUtil.getHddsVolumesList(volumeSet.getVolumesList()), 1);
+
+    KeyValueContainer container = new KeyValueContainer(
+        keyValueContainerData, CONF) {
+      @Override
+      void deleteDirectory(File directory) throws IOException {
+        File deletedContainerDir = KeyValueContainerUtil.getTmpDirectoryPath(
+            getContainerData(), getContainerData().getVolume()).toFile();
+        if (directory.equals(deletedContainerDir)) {
+          throw new IOException("Injected tmp cleanup failure");
+        }
+        super.deleteDirectory(directory);
+      }
+    };
+    container.populatePathFields(scmId, containerVolume);
+
+    ContainerPacker<KeyValueContainerData> failingPacker =
+        new ContainerPacker<KeyValueContainerData>() {
+          @Override
+          public byte[] unpackContainerData(
+              Container<KeyValueContainerData> containerToUnpack,
+              InputStream inputStream, Path tmpDir, Path destContainerDir)
+              throws IOException {
+            Files.createDirectories(new File(containerToUnpack
+                .getContainerData().getChunksPath()).toPath());
+            Files.createDirectories(new File(containerToUnpack
+                .getContainerData().getMetadataPath()).toPath());
+            throw new IOException("Injected import failure");
+          }
+
+          @Override
+          public void pack(Container<KeyValueContainerData> containerToPack,
+              OutputStream destination) {
+          }
+
+          @Override
+          public byte[] unpackContainerDescriptor(InputStream inputStream) {
+            return null;
+          }
+        };
+
+    assertThrows(IOException.class, () -> container.importContainerData(
+        new ByteArrayInputStream(new byte[0]), failingPacker));
+
+    assertFalse(new File(container.getContainerData().getContainerPath())
+        .exists());
+    File deletedContainerDir = KeyValueContainerUtil.getTmpDirectoryPath(
+        container.getContainerData(), container.getContainerData().getVolume())
+        .toFile();
+    assertTrue(deletedContainerDir.exists());
+    assertTrue(new File(deletedContainerDir, OzoneConsts.STORAGE_DIR_CHUNKS)
+        .exists());
+    assertTrue(new File(deletedContainerDir, OzoneConsts.CONTAINER_META_PATH)
+        .exists());
+  }
+
   private void checkContainerFilesPresent(KeyValueContainerData data,
       long expectedNumFilesInChunksDir) throws IOException {
     File chunksDir = new File(data.getChunksPath());