Delete items

If an item is no longer needed and no one is using it, you can delete it from the organization.

Item owners and organization administrators can delete items.

Tip:

Organization administrators can also delete items as part of managing the items of a specific organization member.

Before you delete

Consider the following before you delete an item from the organization:

• You should mark an item as deprecated before deleting it to allow people who are using the item time to find a replacement item.
• You must disable delete protection before you can delete an item.
• Many types of items are placed in a recycle bin when you delete them. After 14 days (336 hours from the time the item moved to the recycle bin), the process of permanently deleting the item begins. If you need to recover any of these items before they are permanently deleted, you can restore them. For a list of items that are not placed in recycling when you delete them, see FAQ.

  Note:

  While hosted layers remain in the recycle bin, you cannot create other hosted layers with the same name, because these names must be unique.

• When a web map with predefined offline map areas moves to the recycle bin, the offline map areas and offline packages are immediately deleted.
• Categories are removed from items when they move to the recycle bin.
• Scheduled tasks are removed from notebooks and data pipeline items when they move to the recycle bin.
• Items in the recycle bin no longer appear in lists of favorite items.
• Items in the recycle bin are not returned when users search for content.
• To immediately delete an item without it moving to the recycle bin, check the Delete permanently option when deleting. You can also permanently delete an item from the recycle bin before the 14 days expire.
• Before you can permanently delete a hosted feature layer, you must permanently delete its dependent layers.

Caution:

Once it is permanently deleted, the item is no longer available and cannot be restored.

Delete a single item

You can delete a single item from the item's page. Use this method if you need to disable delete protection before deleting the item.

1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner or an administrator.
2. Open the item page and click the Settings tab.
3. Disable delete protection for the item and click Save.
4. Click Delete Item and click Delete to confirm.

   If the item can be placed in the recycle bin, it will be moved there and stored in that location for 14 days. If necessary, you can restore the item from the recycle bin before it is permanently deleted.

   To immediately delete the item instead, click Show more, click Delete permanently (cannot be undone), and click Delete to confirm.

   Caution:

   Once the item is permanently deleted, it is no longer available and cannot be recovered.

Delete multiple items

If the items don't have delete protection enabled, it is more efficient to delete multiple items from the Content page.

1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner or an administrator.
2. Open the Content page and click one of the following:
   • If you own the items, click the My content tab. Click All my content if items are in different folders or open the folder where the items are stored.
   • If you are an organization administrator, click the My organization tab.
3. Ensure you're viewing contents in the Table view.
4. Check the box next to each item to be deleted and click Delete.

   Items that can be placed in the recycle bin will be stored there for 14 days before being permanently deleted. If necessary, you can restore the items from the recycle bin in that time.

   Not all items can be sent to the recycle bin. To see which items will go to the recycle bin, click the number next to Send to the recycle bin in the Delete items pane.

   To immediately delete the items instead, click Show more, click Delete permanently, and click Permanently delete (cannot be undone) to confirm.

   Caution:

   Once they are permanently deleted, items are no longer available and cannot be recovered.

5. Click Delete to confirm.

Permanently delete items

Items in the recycle bin will be permanently deleted automatically after 14 days (24 hours x 14 from the time the item was deleted). To permanently delete an item before that time, delete it from the recycle bin.

One reason to delete an item from the recycle bin is to save the cost of storing the items. Information about how much space is being used by the recycle bin contents appears at the top of the recycle bin.

Caution:

Once it is permanently deleted, an item is no longer available and cannot be recovered.

1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner, a member of the default administrator role, or a member of a custom role with administrative privileges to view, update, and delete other users' content.
2. Open the recycle bin.
   • If you own the items, click the My content tab of the Content page and click the Recycle bin under Folders.
   • If you are an organization administrator, you can open a member's recycle bin by accessing their content or open the recycle bin for the entire organization from the organization's content.
3. Check the box next to each item to be deleted and click Permanently delete.

   To select and delete all items on the page, check the check box at the top of the recycle bin item list.

4. Click Permanetly delete to confirm.