Mass Delete Files

Question

I'm trying to delete about 20,000 files, the M-Files viewer only allows me to see 500 files at a time, so I can only delete 500 files at a time. 
 Is there a more proper way to delete these files? They are not going anywhere, we just need them to be destroyed. 
 Thanks

hass.baker · Accepted Answer

I use the One Time Export feature in M-Files Admin (specify a search filter for those 20.000 files) and then tick the box against Destroy exported objects after export.

ssential · Answer

Another idea is using the importer tool. Conduct an export of your objects, and then have the importer tool process them to a desired state which then deletes them.

ssential · Answer

Two options for you: 
 1) If these 20,000 files all fall into the same status in a workflow, build a state transition to have the M-Files server carry this out for you. But only pursue this option if these conditions are met: all intended files to be deleted have the same metadata and they are in the same workflow, you can set the trigger to go to the next state and once reached, that state will delete them. 
 2) In M-Files admin, turn up your list view amount. I don't recommend turning it up to 20,000. We have ours set to 1,000, but it's better than 500. You know the limits of your PC's performance. And if you decide to increase the list view number even more, then be aware to revert it back so users don't experience any performance issues.

𝕤𝕨𝕖𝕚𝕤𝕖 · Answer

I found a tool for this purpose written in C# but you would have to compile it yourself.. 
 
 https://github.com/8/MFilesDeleter

dejan · Answer

We have had some similar cases (in our case we needed to update certain properties). We developed small background task which would periodically loop over, search for documents and update metadata. Similar would work with destroying. It is VAF-based and could be also stopped when no more documents existing. It is pretty straight forward. If you go that path, let me know and I can support you.

Mass Delete Files

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