Deleting a folder

When you delete a folder (directory node), the folder and its contents are placed in a special location for deleted directory nodes. This location holds deleted folders and child assets until an administrative user restores them to the digital asset hierarchy, or removes them permanently from the system. If the administrative user mistakenly deletes a folder, the folder and its child assets (if any) can be restored as long as the folder has not been permanently removed. (See Managing deleted assets and directory nodes for detailed information.)

You can safely delete a folder that contains up to 500,000 assets (including those in subfolders). Deleting more than 500,000 can take more time than the program can manage, which may cause data and program errors.

When you delete a folder, all of the assets and folders are treated as a single object in Manage Deleted Items and cannot be separated or purged separately. When purging a folder from Manage Deleted Items, any folder over 10,000 can cause the software to fail. Therefore, when deleting folders that contain large amounts of assets, it is better to delete subfolders within the main folder that contain fewer than 10,000 assets, and then delete the main folder; this creates objects in Manage Deleted Items that can be purged without incident.

If you have already deleted a folder that contains more than 10,000 assets, you can restore the folder and its assets and then delete individual subfolders that contain 10,000 or fewer assets to make purging the folder possible. For more information, see Restoring deleted assets and directory nodes.

If the folder you delete has any linked copies in the digital asset hierarchy, only the folder is deleted. The linked copies remain in the digital asset hierarchy. To delete all of the copies linked to a folder, you must manually delete each linked copy from the digital asset hierarchy.

You can delete a folder only if your login has an access level that allows you to delete directory nodes. If your login can see a particular folder, but the folder contains child folders or assets for which you do not have required permissions to delete, you will not be able to delete the folder.

To remove a folder

  1. Log in to the Admin console.

  2. Choose Assets from the navigation pane.

    The Assets page displays. The digital asset hierarchy appears under Directory.

  3. Do one of the following: 

    • Use the Directory hierarchy to locate the folder you want to remove. Refer to Navigating the digital asset hierarchy for information about navigating to a particular directory node and digital asset.
    • Use Search Assets by Name to find the folder (for more information, see Searching for assets).
  4. Choose the Delete () option for the folder.

  5. From the confirmation message, choose one of the following options:

    • Delete Folder removes the selected folder and its contents (subfolders and assets) from the digital asset hierarchy and places it in a special location. A deleted folder and its contents can be restored to the hierarchy using the Restore option in Deleted Assets. (See Managing deleted assets and directory nodes for information.)
    • Cancel ends the delete process without deleting the folder.

Related topics 

Digital Assets

Managing deleted assets and directory nodes