Is there any way an admin can override soft-deletes on a case-by-case basis, or is setting Permanent deletes in the console our only option (server admin is on holiday) We’re prototyping and the pink remnants are distracting. TIA

Hello Shoq, Is this what you’re looking for? [image] Introducing permanently delete post functionality megaphoneAnnouncements When a post is deleted in Discourse, we perform a soft-delete. This means that post is still present in the database in case an administrator wants to recover it later. A soft-delete is not sufficient when the deleted post contains sensitive information and must be pruned from the database completely. For those situations, we are introducing the ability to permanently delete a post. [image] To use this feature, enable the can permanently delete setting. However, please be aware of the risks i… [image] Enable setting to allow admins to permanently delete data Self-Hosting bookmark This is a guide on how to enable the setting for administrators to permanently delete data on a Discourse instance. person_raising_hand Required user level: Admin As of v2026.4.0 Changelog | Discourse Releases the site setting to allow admins to permanently delete data is no longer a hidden site setting. To use this feature, enable the can permanently delete setting. However, please be aware of the risks involved with this feature — as the setting name suggests, if you permanen…

Thank you, but no. That requires Console access which I don’t have until my server admin returns on Monday. I was hoping to find another way.

What remnants are you talking about? Can you post a screenshot? If it’s this (tho it’s not pink): [The image is a screenshot of a comment under the username "Canapin" with the word "test" next to it. (Captioned by AI)] This can be hidden with CSS if you have access to themes: .gap { display: none; } I don’t know if there are side effects.

Figured it out. The “Permanently Delete” is under a different wrench menu than what I was looking at. The entities are confusing for we newbies sometimes. I have lots of that. Thank you for the assistance :slight_smile:

Soft-delete override?

Product Support

Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin) March 7, 2025, 7:23pm 3

Hello Shoq,

Is this what you’re looking for?

Topic		Replies	Views
Why is it not possible to permanently delete topics or posts? Product Support	4	1889	October 11, 2024
Admin Deleting Posts Product Support permanently-delete	1	1151	November 17, 2021
Enable setting to allow admins to permanently delete data Self-Hosting how-to , permanently-delete	3	3087	April 30, 2026
Introducing permanently delete post functionality Announcements new-feature , permanently-delete	2	9880	April 22, 2026
How to delete post permanently? Product Support	1	324	August 6, 2024

Soft-delete override?

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