diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 78e97f01d..a20498289 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -374,7 +374,6 @@ clean:
 	cd lib && ${MAKE} clean
 	cd src && ${MAKE} clean
 	cd test/tap && ${MAKE} clean
-	cd test/deps && ${MAKE} clean
 	rm -f pkgroot || true
 
 .PHONY: cleandeps
diff --git a/test/deps/Makefile b/test/deps/Makefile
index 0eabf53c1..76bf1203f 100644
--- a/test/deps/Makefile
+++ b/test/deps/Makefile
@@ -64,12 +64,7 @@ cleanall:
 
 .PHONY: clean
 .SILENT: clean
-clean:
-	cd mariadb-connector-c/mariadb-connector-c && $(MAKE) --no-print-directory clean || true
-	cd mariadb-connector-c/mariadb-connector-c && rm -f CMakeCache.txt || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c/mysql-connector-c && $(MAKE) --no-print-directory clean || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c/mysql-connector-c && rm -f CMakeCache.txt || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c/mysql-connector-c && rm -f libmysql/libmysqlclient.a || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c-8.4.0/mysql-connector-c && $(MAKE) --no-print-directory clean || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c-8.4.0/mysql-connector-c && rm -f CMakeCache.txt || true
-	cd mysql-connector-c-8.4.0/mysql-connector-c && rm -f libmysql/libmysqlclient.a || true
+clean: cleanall
+
+# NOTE: clean is now an alias of cleanall since the incremental clean
+# was practically redundant due to build targets forcing full rebuilds anyway