diff --git a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/api/browseDashboardsAPI.ts b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/api/browseDashboardsAPI.ts
index 29e02e8f2c6..66b40ae8417 100644
--- a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/api/browseDashboardsAPI.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/api/browseDashboardsAPI.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import { lastValueFrom } from 'rxjs';
 
 import { isTruthy } from '@grafana/data';
 import { BackendSrvRequest, getBackendSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
-import { FolderDTO } from 'app/types';
+import { DescendantCount, DescendantCountDTO, FolderDTO } from 'app/types';
 
 import { DashboardTreeSelection } from '../types';
 
@@ -38,56 +38,33 @@ export const browseDashboardsAPI = createApi({
     getFolder: builder.query<FolderDTO, string>({
       query: (folderUID) => ({ url: `/folders/${folderUID}` }),
     }),
-    getAffectedItems: builder.query<
-      // TODO move to folder types file once structure is finalised
-      {
-        folder: number;
-        dashboard: number;
-        libraryPanel: number;
-        alertRule: number;
-      },
-      DashboardTreeSelection
-    >({
+    getAffectedItems: builder.query<DescendantCount, DashboardTreeSelection>({
       queryFn: async (selectedItems) => {
         const folderUIDs = Object.keys(selectedItems.folder).filter((uid) => selectedItems.folder[uid]);
-        // Mock descendant count
-        // TODO convert to real implementation
-        const mockDescendantCount = {
-          folder: 1,
-          dashboard: 1,
-          libraryPanel: 1,
-          alertRule: 1,
-        };
-        const promises = folderUIDs.map((id) => {
-          return new Promise<typeof mockDescendantCount>((resolve, reject) => {
-            // Artificial delay to simulate network request
-            setTimeout(() => {
-              resolve(mockDescendantCount);
-              // reject(new Error('Uh oh!'));
-            }, 1000);
-          });
+
+        const promises = folderUIDs.map((folderUID) => {
+          return getBackendSrv().get<DescendantCountDTO>(`/api/folders/${folderUID}/counts`);
         });
 
         const results = await Promise.all(promises);
-        const aggregatedResults = results.reduce(
-          (acc, val) => ({
-            folder: acc.folder + val.folder,
-            dashboard: acc.dashboard + val.dashboard,
-            libraryPanel: acc.libraryPanel + val.libraryPanel,
-            alertRule: acc.alertRule + val.alertRule,
-          }),
-          {
-            folder: 0,
-            dashboard: 0,
-            libraryPanel: 0,
-            alertRule: 0,
-          }
-        );
 
-        // Add in the top level selected items
-        aggregatedResults.folder += Object.values(selectedItems.folder).filter(isTruthy).length;
-        aggregatedResults.dashboard += Object.values(selectedItems.dashboard).filter(isTruthy).length;
-        return { data: aggregatedResults };
+        const totalCounts = {
+          folder: Object.values(selectedItems.folder).filter(isTruthy).length,
+          dashboard: Object.values(selectedItems.dashboard).filter(isTruthy).length,
+          libraryPanel: 0,
+          alertRule: 0,
+        };
+
+        for (const folderCounts of results) {
+          totalCounts.folder += folderCounts.folder;
+          totalCounts.dashboard += folderCounts.dashboard;
+          totalCounts.alertRule += folderCounts.alertrule ?? 0;
+
+          // TODO enable these once the backend correctly returns them
+          // totalCounts.libraryPanel += folderCounts.libraryPanel;
+        }
+
+        return { data: totalCounts };
       },
     }),
   }),
diff --git a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/BrowseActions/MoveModal.test.tsx b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/BrowseActions/MoveModal.test.tsx
index 5ac7b077728..b5e34cdb623 100644
--- a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/BrowseActions/MoveModal.test.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/BrowseActions/MoveModal.test.tsx
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import React from 'react';
 import { TestProvider } from 'test/helpers/TestProvider';
 import { selectOptionInTest } from 'test/helpers/selectOptionInTest';
 
+import { setBackendSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
+import { backendSrv } from 'app/core/services/__mocks__/backend_srv';
 import * as api from 'app/features/manage-dashboards/state/actions';
 import { DashboardSearchHit } from 'app/features/search/types';
 
@@ -22,6 +24,14 @@ describe('browse-dashboards MoveModal', () => {
   ];
   let props: Props;
 
+  beforeAll(() => {
+    setBackendSrv(backendSrv);
+    jest.spyOn(backendSrv, 'get').mockResolvedValue({
+      dashboard: 0,
+      folder: 0,
+    });
+  });
+
   beforeEach(() => {
     props = {
       isOpen: true,
diff --git a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/state/actions.ts b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/state/actions.ts
index ed0ad9541a2..8ee42212b5d 100644
--- a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/state/actions.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/state/actions.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ export const deleteDashboard = createAsyncThunk('browseDashboards/deleteDashboar
 
 export const deleteFolder = createAsyncThunk('browseDashboards/deleteFolder', async (folderUID: string) => {
   return getBackendSrv().delete(`/api/folders/${folderUID}`, undefined, {
-    params: { forceDeleteRules: true },
+    // TODO: Once backend returns alert rule counts, set this back to true
+    // when this is merged https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/67259
+    params: { forceDeleteRules: false },
   });
 });
 
diff --git a/public/app/types/folders.ts b/public/app/types/folders.ts
index 9f5bc9628a0..96b372f8ff4 100644
--- a/public/app/types/folders.ts
+++ b/public/app/types/folders.ts
@@ -27,6 +27,20 @@ export interface FolderState {
   canViewFolderPermissions: boolean;
 }
 
+export interface DescendantCountDTO {
+  folder: number;
+  dashboard: number;
+  libraryPanel: number;
+  alertrule?: number;
+}
+
+export interface DescendantCount {
+  folder: number;
+  dashboard: number;
+  libraryPanel: number;
+  alertRule: number;
+}
+
 export interface FolderInfo {
   /**
    * @deprecated use uid instead.