# Intermediates
import { Steps } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
import Callout from '@components/annotated/Callout.astro';
import IntermediatesSettingsSketch from '@components/annotated/IntermediatesSettingsSketch.astro';
Generation leaves temporary images and videos behind: canvas composites, filter previews, staging candidates and other files that never reached the gallery. These **intermediates** take up disk space. **Settings › Intermediates** shows how much space each project could reclaim and deletes only what nothing needs any more.
Open it from Settings, or from:
- a project's actions menu: **Delete intermediates…** opens the section filtered to that project. Remove the project tag (**Show all projects**) to see the others;
- **Data & workspace** in Settings: **Manage intermediates…**;
- the Users page (administrators): the brush button on an account's row opens the section on that account.
## The Intermediates section
Reloads the counts, and picks up a deletion that is running but not shown, for example one started in another tab.
Filters the rows by project name. Administrators can also search account names and emails.
Administrators only. The section starts on your own account; remove the filter (**Show everyone**) to list every account, and **My account** returns to yours.
Selects every row the search, account and project filters match, including rows on other pages; untick a row to leave it out. The text beside it estimates what a delete reclaims.
Opens the confirmation for the selected rows. It waits while a deletion is still running.
One row per project, with its cover, name and reclaimable size; with every account shown, the owner comes first. Files whose size is still being measured are counted separately, never as empty.
Intermediates a normal delete keeps: referenced by a saved document, used by queued or running work, held by an open editor, or created recently.
Intermediates nothing needs any more: what a normal delete removes.
Intermediates without a known project, marked **No project**. Leftovers of deleted projects appear here.
Rows are sorted by reclaimable size, 50 to a page. Sizes are measured in the background, for example after an upgrade; while that runs, a spinner shows beside **Delete** and the figures grow as measurement finishes.
## Clean up
1. Open **Settings › Intermediates**.
2. Tick the projects to clean up, or **Select all**.
3. Press **Delete**. The confirmation runs a fresh check on the server and shows how many images and videos it will delete, roughly how much space that frees, and how many in-use items it keeps and why.
4. Press **Delete** in the confirmation. The deletion runs on the server, so you can leave the section; its progress shows above the list and picks up again when you come back or reload.
5. Read the result: **Deleted**, **Kept** (items that became needed after the check), **Failed** and **Reclaimed**. Files whose records are gone but whose bytes could not be removed yet show as **Awaiting removal from disk**; they are removed on the next server start and are not counted as reclaimed.
6. If the deletion stopped early or some items failed, press **Delete again**. It opens the confirmation for the same selection and mode, with a fresh check, so it picks up exactly what remains.
## What a normal delete always keeps
| Kept | Why |
| --- | --- |
| Media a pending, waiting or running job produced or uses | Including cached images and videos a job reuses from an earlier job, and the results of finished steps of a workflow that is still running, until the whole workflow finishes. |
| Anything created in the last 30 minutes | An upload the browser is about to reference or enqueue must not disappear first. Cached media stays protected for 30 minutes after the job that reused it ends. |
| Media an open editor still uses | Unsaved edits and undo history in an open tab. The tab keeps a hold on them while it is open; see [Limits and edge cases](#limits-and-edge-cases). |
| Media a saved document names | Projects and their workspaces, library workflows (canvas staging candidates, cropped reference images), the legacy editor's saved canvas and reference images, and recovered projects set aside for repair when project boards were introduced. Only a force delete removes these. |
| Anything that is no longer an intermediate | It was saved to the gallery in the meantime. |
The confirmation sums these up, for example "12 in-use items will be kept. 9 items referenced by saved documents and 3 items created recently."
:::danger[Force delete breaks saved documents]
In the confirmation, **Also delete items that saved documents still reference (advanced)** turns the delete into a force delete. It also removes intermediates that saved projects, workflows, legacy editor state and recovered projects still name: those documents show missing images, and undo may no longer restore them. It cannot be undone.
- The confirmation lists the documents that will lose references (the first 200, and a count of the rest). To confirm, tick the acknowledgement and type `DELETE`.
- It still keeps queued, running, browser-held and recent work.
- A regular user's force delete keeps anything another account's document names, such as a shared workflow.
:::
## Permissions
| Action | Regular user | Administrator |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Delete a project's intermediates | Own projects | Any project |
| Delete an account's intermediates | Own account | Any account |
| Delete everyone's intermediates | No | Yes |
| Force delete referenced intermediates | Own files that only your own documents name | Any authorized scope |
## Limits and edge cases
Limits
| Limit | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Recently created items, always kept | 30 minutes |
| A confirmation's check stays valid for | 10 minutes; after that, check again |
| Confirmations open at once, per account | 4; opening another makes the oldest one expire |
| Rows in one delete | Up to 1,000 ticked rows, or **Select all** with up to 1,000 rows left out |
| Rows **Select all** may match | 10,000; narrow the search |
| Documents one force delete may break | 10,000; narrow the selection |
| An open editor refreshes its hold | Every 5 minutes, and when its tab comes back to the foreground after missing a refresh |
| A hold after its tab crashes | Expires 15 minutes after its last refresh |
| Open editors (tabs) holding media, per account | 8; past that, the one refreshed longest ago stops protecting its media until its next refresh |
| Media one editor holds | 50,000 images and 50,000 videos |
| Running deletions | 1 per account, 8 on the server |
| Finished deletions the server remembers | Each account's last 5, until it restarts |
What the check fixes, and what each batch re-checks
The confirmation's check fixes the moment "recent" is judged at: files created after it are never included. Each batch then re-checks its items at the moment of deletion, so an intermediate that was saved to the gallery, referenced, or picked up by a job in the meantime is kept. Items that became unused after the check are deleted too, so the deleted count can exceed the estimate.
A force delete acknowledges exactly the documents its confirmation listed. A document saved after the check keeps its media; a document on the list may lose further references if it names more items while the deletion runs.
Open editors and browser-only drafts
An open editor holds the media its unsaved content and undo history use. It releases names that leave the current projects and undo history, and releases the whole hold when the tab closes or you sign out. An unsaved draft that lives only in a closed tab is therefore not protected: reopen it before deleting old intermediates.
When a deletion stops
- A running deletion stops at the next batch if the server shuts down, if [image storage maintenance](/users-guide/gallery/image-storage-maintenance/) starts, or if the confirming account is deactivated. Cleanup is refused while that maintenance is active.
- An administrator who loses administrator rights during a deletion of other accounts' intermediates stops at the next batch. During a force delete of their own, they stop breaking other accounts' documents.
- Running deletions live in the server's memory. After a restart the section reports that the server no longer knows the deletion, or, after a reload, no longer shows it. Refresh the list and delete again if anything remains.
- One account runs one deletion at a time, and the server eight. If a limit is reached, wait for a deletion to finish before confirming another.
Legacy endpoint
The older `DELETE /api/v1/images/intermediates` route remains available to administrators. It applies the same rules as a normal delete across every account, so it keeps referenced, active and recent images, and returns the number of images it deleted. It does not touch videos. `GET /api/v1/images/intermediates` counts the images that route would delete, so the legacy button settles at zero after it runs; for a regular user it counts only their own.
Known limitations
- Canvas uploads made before the server accepted the project they belong to are stored without a project and are never re-associated with it. Saved references and editor holds still protect them, but they appear under **Unassigned**.