Managing the Trashbin¶
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 php 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 php 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 php occ trashbin:cleanup user1 user2
Remove deleted files of user1
Remove deleted files of user2
See the Deleted Files section in Config.php Parameters, and the Trashbin section of Using the occ Command.