Cleaning up old material

Why

Old entries, spam in comments and ancient private messages bloat the database and its copies. The wizard removes them by date, not one by one.

How it goes

1. Open “System → Clean up old material” (owner only), pick a date and tick the sections. Every section has a minimum age: nothing younger can be chosen.
2. Press “Trial run”: it changes nothing and shows how many items go, roughly how much space is freed and the oldest examples.
3. Press “Clean up”: first a password check, a database copy, a note in the log and a letter to the owners.

What goes where

• Entries and comments go to the trash for 30 days: they can be restored. Pinned items, reader proposals and anything with a complaint stay.
• Private messages are deleted for good with their attachments: only read ones, not younger than 90 days, and only after a database copy and an “I understand” tick.

The space estimate

The estimate counts the text of the items. Pictures and files are not counted: unused ones are removed by the ordinary clean-up in “Database”.

If something goes wrong

The database copy made before the clean-up is named on the screen. A repeat after an interruption is safe: what is already gone is not touched again.