Managing the Trash Bin

The ownCloud Trashbin (files_trashbin) permanently deletes files according to users’ storage quotas and file ages. When a user deletes a file it is not immediately removed from your ownCloud server, but goes into the Trashbin. Then the user has the options to un-delete the file, or to delete it permanently.

As the ownCloud server administrator, you have two occ commands for permanently deleting files from the Trashbin manually, without waiting for the normal aging-out process:

trashbin
 trashbin:cleanup   Remove deleted files
 trashbin:expire    Expires the users trashbin

The trashbin:cleanup command removes the deleted files of all users, or you may specify certain users in a space-delimited list. This example removes all the deleted files of all users:

sudo -u www-data ./occ trashbin:cleanup
Remove all deleted files
Remove deleted files for users on backend Database
 user1
 user2
 user3
 user4

This example removes the deleted files of user2 and user4:

sudo -u www-data ./occ trashbin:cleanup user2 user4
 Remove deleted files of user2
 Remove deleted files of user4

trashbin:expire deletes only expired files according to the trashbin_retention_obligation setting in config.php. The default setting is auto, which keeps files in the Trashbin for 30 days, then deletes the oldest files as space is needed to keep users within their storage quotas. Files may not be deleted if the space is not needed.

The default is to delete expired files for all users, or you may list users in a space-delimited list:

sudo -u www-data ./occ trashbin:cleanup user1 user2
 Remove deleted files of user1
 Remove deleted files of user2

See the Deleted Files section in Sample PHP Configuration Parameters, and the Trash Bin section of the occ commands.