Empty Trash

Empty Trash is a workspace-level permanent deletion action

Empty Trash permanently deletes the current Trash contents across supported resource types in the workspace. It is intentionally restricted because it can affect many canvases, projects, dashboards, OKR sessions, and files at once.

Use Empty Trash only when a workspace admin has reviewed the risk and the team does not need the deleted work restored. If you only need to remove one item, use Delete work forever for that item instead.

Who can empty Trash

Empty Trash is for workspace admins or similarly privileged roles. Regular members, guests, and view-only collaborators should not expect to see it. If the action is missing, your role probably does not allow workspace-wide permanent deletion.

If you need Trash cleared for policy, storage, or cleanup reasons, ask a workspace admin. Give them the reason, the resource types involved, and whether any items should be restored before clearing.

For role details, see Members, guests, and external collaborators.

What Empty Trash affects

Empty Trash applies to the Trash snapshot in the workspace when the action begins. That can include items you have not personally loaded on screen yet. In a large workspace, resource tabs may paginate or load more items, but Empty Trash is not limited to the rows you happen to see in the first page.

Items added to Trash after Empty Trash begins may not be part of that same clearing action. If new deleted work appears afterward, review it separately instead of assuming the previous Empty Trash action covered it.

Because Empty Trash affects multiple resource types, review resource tabs before running it. Check canvases, projects, dashboards, OKR sessions, and files if those tabs are available.

Before emptying Trash

Ask three questions before using Empty Trash:

If the workspace is clearing Trash for storage, records, or offboarding, document the decision somewhere the team can find later. Once Empty Trash completes, support questions become much harder to answer.

Empty Trash

Open Trash and choose Empty Trash when it is available. Read the confirmation carefully. Confirm only if you understand that the action permanently removes recoverable deleted work from the workspace Trash.

After confirmation, ALLO may process the deletion in the background. The interface may update counts or rows as the workspace Trash is cleared. Large Trash contents can take longer than a single-row delete.

If the page still shows deleted items immediately after you confirm, wait for the action to finish and refresh. If the same items remain after refresh, the action may have failed or those items may have been added after the Empty Trash action started.

Empty Trash versus automatic retention

Automatic retention removes deleted work after the standard recovery window. Empty Trash removes recoverable Trash contents earlier by admin action. Both can make normal restore unavailable, but one is time-based and the other is a deliberate workspace action.

If an item should be restored, restore it before either path removes it. Do not wait for automatic retention if the work is important.

See Retention window for timing details.

Empty Trash and files

Files in Trash are recoverable back to the work context where the team used them. Empty Trash can remove that recovery path. If the team removed a file from a canvas by mistake, restore it before emptying Trash.

If storage cleanup is the reason for Empty Trash, also review Files, storage, and quota. Empty Trash is only one part of a safe storage cleanup workflow.

Troubleshooting Empty Trash

If Empty Trash is missing, check your workspace role. Ask an admin to run it if appropriate.

If Empty Trash appears to run but counts do not change, refresh after a short wait. Large workspaces may need time for background deletion to finish.

If someone reports missing work after Empty Trash, check whether it was in Trash before the admin action. Normal restore is not available after permanent deletion. Use Troubleshooting, When work looks missing, and Contact support with exact item details.

If only one item needs permanent deletion, avoid Empty Trash. Use the single-item Delete forever action so the workspace does not lose unrelated recoverable work.