Delete or Restore a Page
When you delete a Confluence page, we'll move it to the space's trash. It's not permanently deleted, and can be restored by a space admin, until the page is permanently deleted from the trash.
Don't see a delete option? Delete only appears if you are allowed to delete the page. Both space permissions and page restrictions can prevent you from deleting.
Delete a single page
When you delete a page in Confluence, you're deleting its page history too. If you only want to delete a specific version of a page, take a look at the instructions below for deleting a specific version.
To delete a page:
- Go to the page and choose More options> Delete.
- We'll warn you of any issues, such as incoming links that will break. Choose Delete to proceed.
The page will be sent to the trash, where it can be restored by a space admin.
Any child pages (including any restricted pages that you are not allowed to see) will move up to the nearest parent page.
On this page:
Related pages:
Delete a page hierarchy
Only users with Delete Page permission in a space can delete hierarchies.
When deleting a page that has child pages you have the option to delete the entire page hierarchy.
To delete a page hierarchy:
- Navigate to the parent page and choose More options> Delete.
- Choose Also delete child pages then hit Next.
- We'll warn you of any issues, such as incoming links that will break. Choose Delete to proceed.
The pages will be sent to the trash, where they can be restored by a space admin.
Any pages that are restricted (that you are not allowed to see or delete) will not be deleted and will move up to the nearest parent page.
Users who only have Delete Own permission can’t delete hierarchies, even if they created all of the pages in the hierarchy.
Delete an unpublished page
To delete a page that has never been published (a draft), in the editor go to
Deleted drafts are not sent to the trash, so cannot be restored. If other people have contributed to the draft, you will be deleting their work as well as your own.
Delete a page version
Space admins can delete specific versions from the page history. This is useful if you need to prevent older versions of a page being restored in future. Deleting a page version is permanent and can't be undone.
To delete a specific version of a page:
Go to the page and choose
More options> Page History- Choose Delete next to the version you want to delete.
The remaining versions are not re-numbered so that other users can see that a version has been removed.
Restore deleted pages
If you're a space admin you can restore deleted pages back into a space. This is useful if someone accidentally deletes a page and needs to get it back.
To restore a deleted page:
- Go to the space and select Space tools > Content Tools from the bottom of the sidebar
- Choose Trash.
- Choose More options> Restore next to the page you wish to restore.
Pages are restored to the root of the space. Head to Space Tools > Reorder Pages to drag your restored page back into the page hierarchy.
Empty the trash or permanently delete a page
If you're a space admin you can permanently delete a page (and all its attached files) by purging it from the trash. Once purged, the page and all its versions and attached files will be gone for good.
To purge deleted pages:
- Go to the space and select Space tools > Content Tools from the bottom of the sidebar
- Choose Trash.
- Choose More options> Purge next to a specific page or you can Purge all to completely empty the trash.
Trash details
If you're a space admin, you'll see these details about the items in the trash:
- Title – page, blog, or attachment name
- Created by – user that created the item
- Deleted on – date and time of deletion
- Deleted by – user that deleted the item
Screenshot: Space trash view
Sometimes the 'Created by' and 'Deleted by' data won't be available indicated by a '–' symbol. This happens if the pages were imported from an earlier version of Confluence.
As a space admin, you can also get more information about deleted items in the Space Audit logs at Space tools > Audit log.
You must have configured 'Advanced' auditing coverage level for this end user activity to capture this information. Read more about it at Audit Logs
Automatically purge deleted pages and files
Confluence can automatically purge deleted items from the trash when they reach a certain age, based on the date they were deleted.
Deletion dates will not be accurate for any items deleted before Confluence 7.14. This is because we did not store this data in earlier Confluence versions. The date displayed in the trash page is the date your site was first upgraded to Confluence 7.14 or later. Anything deleted after this date has an accurate deletion date.
To find out how to automatically purge items from the trash see Set retention rules to delete unwanted data.