Delete, restore, or purge a page
This content applies to the legacy editor and the new editor.
When you delete a Confluence page, it moves to the space's trash much like an email moves to your email trash or a file moves to the trash on your computer. The page isn't permanently deleted and can be retrieved, until you purge the page from the trash. There's a few things you might want to check before you delete a page, like checking incoming links and child pages, and you can find all of these under the Page Information.
Delete a page
To delete a page
- Go to the page to be deleted.
- Click
> Delete
The Delete option will only appear if you have permission to delete this page. See Space permissions.
If someone has applied page restrictions to the page, these restrictions may also prevent you from deleting the page.
Deleting a draft, unpublished changes, or a page version?
Unlike deleting a published page, deleting any of these is permanent and they can't be restored.
- To delete a draft or unpublished changes while editing a page, choose > Delete unpublished page or Revert to last published version.
- To delete a page version while viewing a page, choose > Page History, find the version you want, and choose Delete.
Delete a page with children
If you delete a page that has any child pages, the child pages move up to the nearest parent page. If you want to keep the child pages under another parent, move them before deleting their former parent.
Remove a parent page and a large number of child pages
- Create a temporary new space
- Move the parent page to the new space (the child pages will move too)
- Delete the space
View Page Information
The Page Information is here to help you delete pages responsibly, letting you know who the last editors were, what incoming links you'll need to remove or redirect, and who has permissions for this page.
To see the information about the page
- View the page.
- Click > Page Information
You'll see the following information:
- Page details: Title, author, date of creation, date of last modification and the tiny link (permalink) of the page.
- Page hierarchy: Parent-child relationships of the page.
- Incoming links: Lists other pages in your Confluence site that have links to this page, or that reference this page in an Include Page or Excerpt Include macro. Deleting this page will break these links, so you might want to unlink or redirect these links.
- Labels: Any labels (tags) that have been applied to this page.
- Page Permissions: Displays page-level security restrictions that apply to the page (if present).
- Recent Changes: Links to the five most recent versions of the page along with the name of the editor and the date of modification.
- Outgoing links: A summary of the links contained on this page, pointing to other pages on the Confluence site or to external websites.
For space admins
Restore a deleted page
When you restore a Confluence page, it will be restored to the root of the space, not to its old location. This means that it sits at the same level in the page tree as your home page, so it won't be visible to anyone from the space sidebar. You can find this page by going to Space settings and selecting Reorder from the Manage pages card.
To restore a deleted page
- Select Space settings
from the sidebar. - Select Trash from the Manage pages card.
- Select Restore for the page you wish to restore.
If a new page has already been created in that space with the same name as the page you're restoring, you'll be given an option to rename the page before it's restored.
Purge deleted pages
To permanently get rid of a page, you need to purge it from the trash. That'll mean the page, and all its versions and attachments, are gone for good.
Attachments of deleted pages remain in the database until the trash is purged, after which they're permanently deleted. This means that, before you purge any pages, you should check that the attachments on those pages aren't being used elsewhere. If you're not sure, move those attachments onto another page.
To purge deleted pages
- Select Space settings from the sidebar.
- Select Trash from the Manage pages card.
- Select Purge for a specific page or Purge All to permanently clear all deleted pages and news items.