Overview

The Purge functionality in the Library allows Salesforce Admins to search for large and/or old files and permanently delete them from the org. This helps keep your org clean, performant, and within storage limits.

Step 1: Access the Purge Tab

Navigate to the Library and click the Purge tab. To run a purge, you must first define a filter, either by selecting one of the predefined options or building a custom filter.

Step 2: Choose or Create a Filter

Filters act as searches that determine which files are returned as candidates for deletion. We package the following 3 predefined filters, but custom filters can also be created and saved for future use.

Predefined Filters: For common use cases, you can select one of the following out-of-the-box filters:

• All Files Older Than 7 Years
• Cases Closed Older Than 7 Years
• Email Messages Older Than 7 Years

Custom Filters: To build a custom filter, choose one of two targeting options:

All Files: 

• This filter targets all files in the org
• Filter by Created Date or Last Modified Date
• Use the "Older than N months" operator to define your date range when looking for old files
• This option searches across all ContentDocument records in the org. A file is included in the results only if it meets the criteria and all of its linked records also meet that criteria. Files tied to any record outside those conditions won't appear.

Object-Based

• Select a specific object (e.g., Cases, Email Messages, Opportunities)
• Choose the fields from that object to target files
• For objects with related email messages, an "Include files from related email" checkbox is available

 

Step 3: Show Results and/or Save the Filter

• Show Results — runs the filter immediately without saving
• Save & Show Results — saves the filter for future use and runs it immediately

Saved filters will appear on the main Purge tab for easy reuse. 

 

Note: Users need "Modify Metadata Through Metadata API Functions" and "Customize Application" permissions to save filters.

Step 4: Refine Results with Additional Filters

After results load, additional filter controls appear at the top of the screen:

 

 

Danger Zone

Clicking the filter icon at the top of the page allows you to include Libraries and Asset Files in your results. Use caution! Deleting these file types can break functionality in Salesforce if the files are actively referenced. Only enable this option if you are confident in what you are removing.

 

Blocked Files

For objects enabled in the File Slayer Setup Wizard, a toggle is available to switch between displaying files that have been blocked by users in the org and seeing all files.

Note: Click Apply after adjusting any additional filters to refresh the results.

 

Step 5: Review and Delete Files

From the list of results, files can be individually deleted by clicking the "Delete" button in the "Action" column. Bulk actions can also be taken with controls in the footer of the page.

• Delete Selected — check individual files and delete only those selected
• Delete All — deletes all files returned by the current filter. Please note that this option is not available for object-specific searches for objects that are not enabled for File Slayer.

Warning: Deletion is permanent. Review linked records carefully before deleting, and exercise extra caution when the Danger Zone option is enabled.