Confluence Content Management: Part 11

[#1]

Deleting a Space

A few times a year, I hunt through my Confluence application looking for unused spaces. Here’s an example.

Last month the software team requested a global space for a special project. But the special project never happened and the space wasn’t used. No content was added or changed since its original creation date. Now there’s a choice to make.

As I’ve mentioned before, I never recommend deleting content, but in this case, it’s literally a blank space with no value. The pages that exist were created by default and have no custom content. I feel alright deleting this space under these circumstances. Here’s how to do it.

To delete a space in Cloud, go to the space settings area and click the ”manage space” option in the left sidebar. Then click the “Delete space” tab. (Don’t worry - there’s a warning message before the deletion!)

When users delete content, it’s held in a trash area for 30 days and can be restored.

Space deletions are different however. All content is removed forever and not recoverable. Again, I only delete spaces if there’s no content. When content exists, use the archive option instead.

In Server and Data Center, the “Delete Space” tab is on the admin overview page. Just like in Cloud, there’s a warning that deletion is forever.

Part 12: Archival Permissions

[Andy Gladstone]

@Rachel Wright a recommended edit to this page is to mention whether deleting a space will make the space key available for future use or not. I won't spoil it by posting the answer here...