Mass delete

 

Remove documents and objects efficiently with Mass delete. This feature lets you delete a group of documents or objects from Relativity in one go. You can even choose to remove their associated images and native files from the file servers for a more comprehensive cleanup.

Access Mass delete from the Mass operations toolbar. If you have the necessary permissions, you can even execute a force delete, which permanently removes documents and certain objects, including unlinked associative entities and child objects. This option requires the Delete Object Dependencies permission within the Admin Operations section of the security settings.

Mass delete is a permanent action, so ensure you double-check your selections before proceeding, as this operation cannot be undone. Additionally, Mass operations are not supported for Data Grid-enabled fields.

Mass delete permissions

Users need the following permissions to successfully mass delete documents:

Object Security	Other Settings
Document	Mass Operations	Admin Operations
View (Eye icon) Edit (Pencil icon) Delete (Trash can icon) Add Image Delete Image	Delete Edit Image	Delete Object Dependencies

Deleting documents that were published through Processing has two key effects:

• Marking deleting: The deleted documents get flagged as “Yes” in the “Processing Deletion” field on the Discovered Files page. This helps track which documents no longer exist after being published.

• Recalculating deduplication and publishing new primaries: Relativity automatically analyzes the remaining data to identify duplicates and adjust its understanding of the primary documents. If applicable, new primary documents may be published to replace the deleted ones. This ensures an exact data representation and avoids issues with missing information. For more details on this behavior and its implications, refer to the documentation section on Post-publish delete.

To mass delete documents after publishing, follow the steps in Running post-publish delete.

Special considerations

Deleting Documents:

• Full deletion: By default, this removes everything - documents, duplicates, and associated files. You can choose to preserve the document record by keeping it in place and only deleting images or native files.
• Force delete: When performing a full deletion, this permanently removes the selected data. For image and native file deletions, you can disable force delete as immediate or permanent removal might be necessary.
• Create audit snapshot: Enable this option to create an extra audit record for every deleted document, helping you track changes and keep a detailed history.

Best Practices to Avoid Slow Mass Deletes

Large mass delete operations can strain system resources, causing long job runtimes and potential timeouts.

Follow these best practices to ensure efficient deletions:

Disable Snapshot Auditing

Snapshot Auditing on Delete creates a copy of every field for each document before deletion. This significantly slows large mass deletes.

In order to improve performance:

• Turn off snapshot auditing on the Document object type before running large deletes.

• Standard audit events (edits, deletions) are still logged—you retain a full audit trail of actions taken on documents.

• Only enable snapshot auditing if your data governance policies require a complete copy of each deleted record. See Enabling or disabling snapshot auditing on delete.

 

Remove Pre-Delete Event Handlers

Custom Pre-Delete event handlers execute additional logic before each deletion, adding overhead to every item being deleted.

 

Manage Extracted Text Storage

If extracted text is stored in SQL rather than Data Grid and the extracted text is very large, it can significantly slow mass delete times.

We recommend running a mass edit to clear extracted text from the documents before deleting. While the edit operation will take time, it makes the subsequent delete much faster.

 

Simplify Delete Dependencies

If the delete dependencies list is very long, the deletion will take longer to process.

We recommend using a mass edit to clear out multi-object fields before deleting. This reduces the number of relationships the system must handle during deletion.

 

Batch Large Deletions

Deleting millions of documents in a single operation can overwhelm the system.

We recommend deleting no more than 500,000 documents at a time.

Smaller batches:

• Reduce the risk of timeouts

• Make it easier to monitor progress

• Allow for recovery if issues occur

 

Schedule Deletes During Off-Peak Hours

If the workspace is under heavy use (such as during active document review), schedule mass deletes during off-peak times—nights or weekends. This minimizes impact on other users and reduces system contention.

Performing a mass delete on other objects

To perform a mass delete operation on other objects, execute the following steps:

1. Navigate to the tab for the object that you want to delete.
2. Select Checked items or All items in the current returned set.
3. Select Delete. The Delete Details form prompts you to confirm the deletion.
   

• Depending on your access level, you may see a warning on the Delete Details Form when deleting certain objects. This means that removing these objects will also automatically delete their associated objects (like child items) and unlink related objects (like associative links).

• This is only applicable when deleting specific types of Dynamic objects, such as:
  Analytics Categorization Sets: Categories and associated data will be deleted.
  Search Terms Reports: Reports and associated data will be deleted.
  OCR Sets: OCR data and associated documents will be deleted.
  Image Sets: Images and associated documents will be deleted.
  

4. Click Delete to delete the object and its children, as well as unlink associative objects. This message displays when you have the security permission Delete Object Dependencies listed in the Admin Operations section of the Security page.

5. (Optional) To view a report showing affected objects, click View Dependencies. When the current object doesn't have any children or associative objects, the View Dependencies toggle is turned off.

To improve mass delete performance when deleting large numbers of documents, turn snapshot auditing off. See Enabling or disabling snapshot auditing on delete.

Enabling or disabling snapshot auditing on delete

• Enabling the "snapshot audit" creates a full copy of the current value of every field for every deleted document. This means you retain a full historical record of their contents even after deletion, enabling you to track document changes over time. However, be aware that it can considerably expand the audit table size and potentially add some delay to mass deletions.

• Even with "snapshot audit" turned off, the system meticulously tracks every field change for every document, creating a detailed record. So, even when you delete a document, its audit trail remains preserved, capturing all alterations made before its deletion. This effectively meets the need to document coding decisions on deleted documents, as they were finalized and registered before the document's removal.

• While enabling "snapshot audit" offers valuable historical documentation, it comes at a cost: a noticeably larger audit table and potentially sluggish mass deletions. This occurs because the system meticulously captures every deleted document, replicating its entirety. This can be resource-intensive and delay your deletion tasks.

• For a quicker and more efficient mass delete experience, consider these two optimizations:
  • Disable the "snapshot audit" setting. This eliminates the need to create and store complete copies of every deleted document, significantly reducing the size of the audit table and the overall resource demands of the deletion process.
  • Remove any "PreDeleteHandlers" attached to the document object. These custom pre-deletion scripts can add unnecessary steps and delays to the process. By removing them, you allow documents to be deleted directly, streamlining the workflow and improving performance. For information on PreDeleteHandlers, see Pre Mass Delete event handlers.

Feature	Description	Impact on Mass delete performance
Snapshot audit	Creates a full copy of every deleted document	Significantly increases the size of the audit table and slows down the Mass deletion process
PreDeleteHandlers	Custom code that runs before deleting a document	Can slow down the Mass deletion process