Deleting an attachment doesn't actually delete the attachment

[QazCetelic]

Describe the current behavior

Deleting an attachment doesn't actually delete the attachment, it just removes the reference in the table.

1. Delete an attachment in the UI
2. The reference is removed, but the attachment (and it's data) is still in _gristsys_Files

Steps to reproduce

1. Pick an attachment and check it's identifier
2. Delete the attachment

3. Restart application and ensure the cell is empty
4. Add back the attachment ID in the database
5. Attachment reappears after restarting application

Describe the expected behavior

Pressing the delete button on an attachment should actually delete it

Where have you encountered this bug?

• On docs.getgrist.com
• On a self-hosted instance

Instance information (when self-hosting only)

• Grist instance:

  • Version: desktop-0.3.2
  • Installation mode: grist-desktop

• Browser name, version and platforms on which you could reproduce the bug: n/a

• Link to browser console log if relevant: n/a

• Link to server log if relevant: n/a

[QazCetelic]

Unused attachments don’t get cleaned out immediately because it’s somewhat of an expensive operation to figure out which are unused. That’s because the same attachment could be referenced from different cells (and even in different attachment columns or different tables). They do get scanned and cleaned out periodically – about once an hour – so Raw Data should reflect the reduced size after a little while.

https://community.getgrist.com/t/delete-attachment-from-trigger-formula/4955/2

[paulfitz]

Ah, thanks for figuring this out and following up @QazCetelic. A way to force this housekeeping step as part of an API endpoint would be welcome.

[QazCetelic]

Thanks for the response. I did notice that the test images I uploaded yesterday (and subsequently "deleted) have still not been cleaned out, am I missing something else or could there be an issue?

EDIT 2025-04-22:
I checked, and the JPG image is still there after being replaced with the WEBP image in the document yesterday. The automatic housekeeping seems to be broken.

Attachment in the table:

EDIT 2025-04023:
The cleanup should be triggered here

There also appears to already be an endpoint to force removing unused attachments intended for testing (/api/docs/:docId/attachments/removeUnused) here

I noticed that the "deleted" file is soft deleted in the attachment table, but not in the files table. 🤔

[QazCetelic]

I just checked, and the files have remained in the Document. I think the cleanup functionality may be broken.