# Delete a specific file
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 18, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627 "2019-06-18T06:06:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/1 "2019-06-18T06:06:50Z")
I need to delete a specific .docx that a user posted with sensitive information as soon as possible. Please help! š
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 6:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/2 "2019-06-18T06:19:07Z")
Sorry for not including more details in my OP, I was a bit panicked. Hereās a bit more background.
The file was originally published in a post I have since deleted. The link to the file in that post was something like like this: [https://example.com/uploads/short-url/3\_FILE\_ID.docx](https://example.com/uploads/short-url/3_FILE_ID.docx)
I assumed that the file would be somewhere in `/shared/standalone/uploads/default`, but I havenāt been able to find it through this:
`find . | grep "3_FILE_ID.docx"`
So thatās where Iām stuck currently.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/3 "2019-06-18T06:23:37Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> I need to delete a specific .docx
If it happened to me Iād start looking in the uploads folder.
Example
```plaintext
csmubd2lcomau:~ admin$ /scripts/connect-to-server/sydney-10.8.0.1.sh
ssh -R 52698:localhost:52698 ceiteach@ceiteach@10.8.0.1
Last login: Tue Jun 18 16:15:05 2019 from 10.8.0.2
[ceiteach@sydney ~]$ sudo bash
[root@sydney ceiteach]# cd /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/default/o
optimized/ original/
[root@sydney ceiteach]# cd /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/default/original/1X/
[root@sydney 1X]# ls *.docx
2d7aced744661d422e1b66e02a12f1617acf13ed.docx e759a55a7284e4bc80f6be55a3013d4c49e8277b.docx
[root@sydney 1X]# pwd
/var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/default/original/1X
```
Maybe revoke read privileges ā¦ check the consequences of removing the file .. and delete the post that the user made.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 6:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/4 "2019-06-18T06:24:51Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> find . | grep ā3\_FILE\_ID.docxā
`ls *.docx` and check the contents of the files you find.
the file name might be a hash of the contents.
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 6:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/5 "2019-06-18T06:54:10Z")
Thanks @csmu for the help, I found the file!
Iāll document what I ended up doing in case this is helpful for future travellers:
1. I navigated to the `/var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/`
2. I searched for the relevant filetype like this: `ls -Rl | grep ".docx"`
3. I looked at the list of files and found the one (there was only one in my case) that was posted today.
4. I downloaded the file to make sure, by using a command like this _on my local machine_:
5. After I confirmed that it was the file I wanted, I just deleted it (`rm /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/default/original/2X/1/FILE_ID.docx`)
Rejoice!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 10:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/6 "2019-06-18T10:37:44Z")
Glad you found it! If you need to do it again, If you still have the post that links the file, you can right click to get the path /filename rather than spelunking to find it.
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/7 "2019-06-18T10:49:49Z")
The filename linked to in the post was different from the filename in the system. Thatās what threw me off originally.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-a-specific-file/120627/8 "2019-07-18T10:49:53Z")
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