Delete an item

Current version: 8.1

Inevitably, you will need to delete content items from time to time. In the Content Editor or the Experience Editor, you can delete an item and all of its versions and subitems, or you can delete a single version of an item.

Note

If you want to remove an item from your website temporarily, you can archive the item. When you archive an item, it is not deleted but stored outside the content tree. Archived items can be restored at any time.

When you delete an item, it is moved to the Recycle Bin. You can restore or permanently delete items from the Recycle Bin.

Delete an item, its subitems and versions

To delete an item and all its subitems and versions:

  1. In the Content Editor or the Experience Editor, navigate to the item or page that you want to delete.

    • In the Content Editor, on the Home tab, in the Operations group, click Delete. Alternatively, you can right-click the item in the content tree, and click Delete.

    • In the Experience Editor, on the Home tab, in the Edit group, click Delete page.

  2. If the item contains subitems, a message appears informing you that that the item contains subitems and that these items will be deleted too.

    • To save any of the subitems, click Cancel and move them to another location.

    • To delete the item and its subitems, click OK. This deletes every version of the item in every language.

If there are links to the item you delete, the Breaking Links dialog box opens.

You can select an option to apply to all links. If you want, you can handle links individually and then apply one option to any remaining links.

  1. To open the list of breaking links, in the Breaking Links dialog box, click Edit Links.

  2. For each link, you can:

    • Edit the item containing the link

    • Remove the link

    • Link to another item

    Note

    If you do not handle a link individually, it remains in the list to be handled collectively.

  3. If you selected Link to another item, in the Relink window, click the item that you want to link to instead. To update the link, click OK.

  4. In the Edit Links dialog box, click Close.

  5. In the Breaking Links dialog, select one of the following options to apply to any remaining links:

    • Remove links – remove all the links that exist to this page.

    • Link to another item – change all the links to this page to link to another item.

    • Leave links – leave broken links to this page. The links will be restored if you restore the item at a later time.

  6. Click Continue.

Delete a single version of an item

If you have created several different versions of an item, you can delete individual versions of the item without deleting the item or any of its other versions or subitems.

To delete a version of an item:

  1. In the content tree, locate the item that has a version that you want to delete.

  2. If the item is available in multiple languages or versions:

    • Click the Language button  and select the language version that you want to delete.

    • Click the Versions button and select the version that you want to delete.

  3. On the Versions tab, in the Versions group, click Remove. The version that you have selected is deleted.

Delete multiple items

In the Content Editor, you can use the Sitecore search functionality to delete multiple items at the same time.

To search for and delete multiple items:

  1. In the Content Editor, locate and select an item that you want to delete.

  2. Click the Search tab, and in the Search field, enter a search keyword for the items that you want to delete.

  3. Use the necessary search facets or filters to narrow down your search so that the search result only displays the items that you want to delete.

  4. Click the drop-down arrow to the left of the search field, click Search Operations, and then click Delete Results.

    Warning

    Once you click Delete results, the result items are deleted without a warning or confirmation. However, if you regret deleting an item, you can open the Sitecore Recycle Bin where you can restore any deleted item.

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