Deleted Files

Introduction

When deletion of a file or folder is requested, Nextcloud does not immediately delete it by default. Instead it is moved into the trash bin to faciliate easy restoration.

Items in the trash bin are only permanently deleted if the owner manually uses the Delete permanently button or administrative policy specifies the items should be automatically (permanently) deleted.

Logged in accounts access their trash bin by selecting the the Deleted files section from within the Files area of the Nextcloud Web interface. There any item still in their trash bin can be restored, downloaded, or deleted permanently.

The experience, from the perspective of individual accounts, is covered in greater detail within the User Manual <https://docs.nextcloud.com/>.

Note

If the Versions app is enabled, restoring a file also restores related file versions.

Warning

When an item that has been shared is deleted then restored, it will no longer be shared.

Policy Configuration

The default retention policy for deleted items is:

  • For all accounts, items will retained in the trash bin indefinitely unless a quota or maximum trash bin size, that is applicable to the account, gets configured.

  • If a account has a maximum trash bin size and exceeds it, the oldest items in their trash bin are automatically (permanently) removed until the maximum trash bin size is no longer exceeded.

  • If an account has a quota configured and exceeds it it, the oldest items in their trash bin are automatically (permanently) removed until the quota is no longer exceeded.

Note

There is no default maximum trash bin size and quotas are at the discretion of the administration.

Hopefully it’s becoming clearer that the default policy can be influenced by:

  • Specifying a quota for an account.

  • Configuring a maximum trash bin size (either globally or on an individual account; applicable to accounts with or without quotas).

  • Overriding the default retention policy by modifying the value of trashbin_retention_obligation in config/config.php (more on that now).

Available retention policy values are:

  • auto, auto (i.e. the default)

    • Keeps files and folders in the trash bin indefinitely.

    • Automatically permanently deletes files and folders in accounts with a maximum trash bin size if space is needed.

    • Automatically permanently deletes files and folders in accounts with quotas if space is needed.

    • Note: Files may not be deleted if space is not needed, such as if there is no applicable maximum trash bin size or quota for an account.

  • X, auto

    • Keeps files and folders in the trash bin for a minimum of X days

    • Automatically permanently elete anytime if space needed (note: files may not be deleted if space is not needed)

  • auto, D

    delete all files in the trash bin that are older than D days automatically, delete other files anytime if space needed

  • D1, D2

    keep files and folders in the trash bin for at least D1 days and delete when exceeds D2 days (note: files will not be deleted automatically if space is needed)

  • disabled

    trash bin auto clean disabled, files and folders will be kept forever

Note

The default policy is equivalent to 'trashbin_retention_obligation' => 'auto', (which is how it was formerly documented and is still also acceptable). It’s presentation has been adjusted to be consistent with other possible values (more on those in a moment).

  • Retain items in the trash bin for a minimum of X days and, optionally, anytime if needed.

  • Automatically (permanently) remove items after they have been in the trash bin for Y days and, optionally, anytime if needed or even never.

  • Never remove files

  • If a maximum trash bin size is configured (either globally or an individual account) and an account still exceeds it after the time-based expiration has taken place, the oldest items in their trash bin are automatically removed until the maximum trash bin size is no longer exceeded.

  • If a maximum trash bin size has not been configured, but an account has a quota configured and has exceeded it (after the age based expiration), then the oldest items in their trash bin are automatically removed until the quota is no longer exceeded.

  • The global retention policy is set via the trashbin_retention_obligation parameter within config/config.php.

  • The maximum trash bin size is an optional parameter that can be set either globally or on a per account basis using the occ trashbin:size command.

    • It is applicable to both accounts that have a quota and those that do not.

    • It takes precedence over any specified quota.

    • It permits the maximum trash bin size to be managed separately from account quotas.

    • It permits an enable to specify a maximum trash bin size for accounts that do not have quotas.

Background Jobs

  • expiration background jobs

  • can manually trigger some activities directly via occ trashbin* commands

This functionality is provided by the Deleted files app (a.k.a. files_trashbin). This app is responsibility for providing the web interface for interacting with deleted items as well

which is enabled by default.

By default, these files remain in the trash bin for 30 days. To prevent an account from running out of disk space, the Deleted files app will not utilize more than 50% of the currently available free quota for deleted files. If the deleted files exceed this limit, the app deletes the oldest files until it gets below this limit. More information is available in the Deleted Files documentation.

is enabled (default), this setting defines the policy for when files and folders in the trash bin will be permanently deleted.

Note

If the user quota limit is exceeded due to deleted files in the trash bin, retention settings will be ignored and files will be cleaned up until the quota requirements are met.

The app allows for two settings, a minimum time for trash bin retention, and a maximum time for trash bin retention. Minimum time is the number of days a file will be kept, after which it may be deleted. Maximum time is the number of days at which it is guaranteed to be deleted. Both minimum and maximum times can be set together to explicitly define file and folder deletion. For migration purposes, this setting is installed initially set to “auto”, which is equivalent to the default setting in Nextcloud.

You may alter the default pattern in config.php. The default setting is auto, which sets the default pattern:

'trashbin_retention_obligation' => 'auto',

Background job

To permanently delete files a background jobs runs every 30 minutes. It’s possible to deactivate the background job and setup a (system) cron to expire the versions via occ.

Deactivate background job: occ config:app:set --value=no files_trashbin background_job_expire_trash

Activate background job: occ config:app:delete files_trashbin background_job_expire_trash

Expire versions: occ trashbin:expire or occ trashbin:expire --quiet (without the progress bar)