# Purge old topics

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 12, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159 "2015-09-12T13:54:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Ganzuelo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ganzuelo/32/36465_2.png) [@Ganzuelo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ganzuelo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/1 "2015-09-12T13:54:26Z")

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Is there away of purging topics that are older than a given date?

My forum looks like a ghost town and I’d like to delete a bunch of old posts and I’m hoping this can be done without manually deleting each one.

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### Author: ![wesochuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/wesochuck/32/108706_2.png) [@wesochuck](https://meta.discourse.org/u/wesochuck)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/2 "2015-09-12T18:06:53Z")

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In the Settings in your admin panel, search for the term _topic_ and/or _cold_ and you’ll be presented with several settings that might be able to help. For example: _cold age days high_ = After this many days of conversation, the last activity date is strongly dimmed.

If you want to do a batch delete, you can show the bulk selector tool on a category list or from the full page search results. Then use the wrench that will appear on the right hand side to perform the archive or delete action.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/3 "2015-09-12T23:36:17Z")

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@sam also added topic selectors to search results as well for bulk actions. Which could include delete!

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### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/4 "2018-11-06T15:10:09Z")

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/5 "2018-11-06T23:49:33Z")

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Note, full circle here, we now support delete in bulk actions.

You can search for topics within a data range using `before:2018-11-07` and sort by date, then you would bulk select and delete.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/purge-old-topics/33159/6 "2018-11-06T23:49:37Z")

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