Deleting Notes and Their Attachments in Anytype

[netype]

What do you need help with?

Hi Anytype Community,

I’m looking for a practical workaround to delete notes (objects) along with their attached files (e.g., images, PDFs) in Anytype. I understand that when a note is moved to the Bin, the attached files remain in the vault as separate objects, which can clutter storage over time. The Manage Files section in Space Settings helps, but manually identifying and deleting these files is tedious, especially for orphaned attachments with no clear backlinks.

Is there an effective way to:

• Automatically delete linked files when deleting a note?
• Easily identify and remove orphaned files that are no longer linked to any note?

OS

macOS 15.5

Anytype Version

0.46.1

Network Mode

AnySync

Technical Information

OS version: darwin arm64 15.5.0
App version: 0.46.1
Build number: build on 2025-04-17 20:22:50 +0000 UTC at #de38863027eb064b5b0ec258ce088fc45cb213cb
Library version: v0.40.16
Anytype Identity: A6RxNLbFg8xSgwzzjT87nj2L8776eAaEAwpdUGvL4518JxHJ
Analytics ID: McBEMjEPkHEFuSa3y1DtKGuX9kt4Yas6zkbNSg3mwD2tjpBD
Device ID: 12D3KooWAmdTZYkJPvAPRwh59s1EXEabTSGavHtbvM9nx3WEm52b
Ethereum Address: 0x536b76852fD51D81462ca16D8a5ec3557B81ac13

[Shampra]

Well, no, no effective way…

Basically, what you’re missing is two things:

• a link between each element of a note and that note (this is not the case with images, which have no visible link)
• A cascading delete function.
• You should also be aware that some deletes only remove; that a real delete also involves emptying the trash; and that despite all this, the space is not necessarily freed (local or server-side space)
• And for more complex thing to delete (with property, type, etc)… fortunately, this is not your request.

For you, here’s a request close to your needs (there are plenty of others), please vote if you want :

Nested Files / Objects deletion

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Deleting subpages in each pages is so slow to do. With the current feature, just deleting the main pages themselves does not delete the pages inside it. Imagine having around 200-ish pages, and each of them have subpages. (Thanks to Notion import😂) That means users had to go through 200 pages, SELECT, and delete the subpage first before deleting the main page. Describe the solution you’d like We can try to have an option just b…

Alternative :
You can create a Query to find all item without link and/or backlinks.
I thinks it can work for files except image (all your images will be without links).

• Create a query with all object (Property : object type), add “Links”, “Backlinks” and filter to show all unlinked objects.
  
  

[netype]

@Shampra

You should also be aware that some deletes only remove; that a real delete also involves emptying the trash; and that despite all this, the space is not necessarily freed (local or server-side space)

Oh man! Didn’t know that too. So how do we actually free that space I wonder?

I am at the point again revealute using Anytype anymore. That’s a big bummer

[VisualNotes]

@Shampra

and that despite all this, the space is not necessarily freed (local or server-side space)

Really? Even after emptying the trash and syncronization?

[Shampra]

I understand that!
I’ve gotten into the habit of multiplying “disposable” spaces, but I have a “clean” space that’s been turned into a trash can, so I’d have to spend some time cleaning up the residue (images and a few properties in my case).
Incidentally, I haven’t tested whether a deleted space frees up server/local space…

@VisualNotes

Really?

Read this post, it’s “not implemented yet” ;-).

Self-Hosting: deleting a file does not free up any disk space

What’s The Bug? I delete a file within the client from the bin (more than 100MB). The disk space does not get freed up. One will run out of disk space at some point without the user being able to do anything about it. # du -hs storage 1018M storage (before uploading a file) 1,1G storage (after uploading a file) 1,2G storage (after deleting a file) [image] How To Reproduce It check used disk space upload a file check used disk space and see that the usage increases delete a file check …

[krst]

@netype

Oh man! Didn’t know that too. So how do we actually free that space I wonder?

we don’t and let the files section grow and grow and rot esp. when you use the web clipper you cannot under any circumstances keep that organized.

@Shampra

Read this post, it’s “not implemented yet” ;-).

I’m not sure if it doesn’t get freed on the client side. the cached and already downloaded files won’t get deleted for sure. I’m not sure about the encrypted blobs though.

the linked issue for sure mentions that on the server side (when self hosting) anytype doesn’t free up any disk space. this is true. for now self hosters need to be aware that they could eventually run out of disk space at some point. I for example host services I often use on SSDs, so I don’t need to hear my NAS disks near my desk all the time. and SSD space is expensive, I can’t afford inefficient services on there

[VisualNotes]

Does this only affect self hosting?

[krst]

you could give it a try by uploading a file that you would notice (several MB) and compare the data directory of anytype before and after.

[netype]

@krst

when you use the web clipper you cannot under any circumstances keep that organized.

That’s painful. Using webclipper is gonna be a sure fire way to mess things up.

At this point I am thinking I use Anytype for journaling only. I like it being minimal and offline. Obsidian is also good but it has file modification/creation date issues on Android. So yeah maybe something like Joplin notes for everything else I guess. So much to think about.

[stef47]

I checked my local only data in Anytype. Deleted 1500 test images and the space occupied by Anytype data folder was shrinked, so emptying bin will free up space on local hdd/ssd.