Retention of files
Nextcloud's Files Retention app allows to automatically delete files that are tagged with a collaborative tag and have a certain age.
Example
After installing the Retention app as described in Apps management navigate to Administration settings and then to Flow.
The rule from the example will delete all files tagged with Temporary file 14 days after the creation.
You can also use the "Notify owner a day before a file is automatically deleted" option to make sure the file owner will get a notification before a file will be deleted.
File age
There are 2 options available that can be used to decide when to delete a file:
- Creation: Time the file was created on the Nextcloud Server or uploaded to it.
- Last modification: Time when the file was last modified. Uploading also counts as a modification, so files that have not been modified since a long time before uploading are not deleted shortly after the upload.
Common misconfigurations
Public collaborative tag
Similar to Files access control retention should use restricted or invisible tags. Otherwise any user can remove the tag and the file is not removed after the given period. Use Automated tagging of files to assign such tags to newly uploaded files.