Delete assets

There are a number of ways to delete assets from Cloudinary:

Programmatically:

• Use the Destroy method of the Upload API to delete a single asset. This method requires a signature to be generated on the server side.
• Use the Delete resources method of the Admin API to delete multiple assets. You can specify a set of assets to be deleted using delete_resources_by_prefix, delete_all_resources (optionally giving a type) or Delete resources by tag. These methods require your API key and secret, so are not suitable for use in client-side code.
• Delete client-side uploaded assets using a delete token returned in the upload response that is valid for 10 minutes.

Via the Media Library:

• Select and delete assets in the Media Library.
• Delete folders and their contents in the Media Library.

In bulk, via Console Settings:

You can bulk delete several assets at a time using set criteria from your Console Settings.

1. In Settings > Bulk Delete, choose whether to delete originals and derived resources or derived only.
2. Under Search by, select the criteria by which you want to select the assets to delete.
3. Select the relevant Resource type (image, video, raw, any, all) and Type (upload, private, authenticated, list, etc) of the assets to delete.
4. If automatic backups are enabled for your product environment, optionally select Clear backed‑up versions for the affected assets.
5. Click Next, confirm with your account password, and submit the job. You'll receive an email notification when the process completes.

For information about backed‑up versions and restoration options, see Backups and version management.

Understanding asset deletion

When you delete assets, they are immediately and permanently removed from your cloud storage. However, assets and transformed assets already downloaded by visitors to your website, might still be accessible through cached copies on the CDN if they are not invalidated.

From within the Media Library, an invalidate request is automatically included whenever you delete, rename, or overwrite media assets. If using the Destroy or Delete resources methods, you need to set the invalidate parameter to true to invalidate copies of the asset on the CDN. It usually takes between a few seconds and a few minutes for the invalidation to fully propagate through the CDN. There are also a number of other important considerations when using the invalidate functionality.

You can restore deleted assets from backup if you have enabled automatic backup for your product environment.

Delete assets video tutorial

Watch this video tutorial to learn more about deleting assets with a deep dive into the Node.js SDK methods.

Tutorial contents