Most commonly database storage is used extensively in three areas of a Workbooks database; Import Jobs, Emails and Email attachments, and Uploaded files. Many customers have asked how they would go about trying to reduce these values and how to identify the best Records to delete.

NOTE: After deleting a Record, the storage space is not freed up as Workbooks operates a soft delete process. This means that Records deleted via the Workbooks UI are soft deleted within the database and these soft deleted items are permanently removed from the database during a Database Clean-up process. We often use the analogy that it is like a Windows Recycle Bin without the ability to Restore items. 

To attempt to address the Storage Usage in these areas please consider the following;

1. Import Jobs - Import files and the associated Uploaded Files

The number of Import Records within your database can be found by following the path Start > Import > All Imports. Every one of these imports will have an uploaded file attached. 

• The size of these files is not something that can be determined at a glance however the Number of Rows the file has is within your Import Landing Page can provide some insight. 
  • This value can indicate how large a file may be, with a large number of Rows suggesting a large uploaded file attached. 
  • We would suggest that filters are applied to this Landing Page to identify the Import Records that you are comfortable removing from the database. The precise filters to use would depend on internal factors to your business. 
• Workbooks provide the advice on the undoing an Import section of the Running an Import Knowledge base page that it is good practice to delete any records with a status of Not Run. If you have any import records with a status of Awaiting Review but you know you will not be approving the import, these should be deleted also.

2. Emails and Email attachments

The All Emails Landing Page shows that current number of emails present within the database. 

• Is it appropriate to delete any of these straight away? 
• It is possible to open up an email and see the size of an attachment in the hyperlinked text below the main body of the email. We currently have an enhancement being considered by our Development team to allow for the size of attached files to be displayed on the Landing Page. 
  • Until this becomes available, the most efficient way to reduce the storage in this area is to filter for those emails that have uploaded files or attachments by filtering for any email where the "Files?" Column is TRUE. By ensuring that any email opened has an attachment associated this could then allow you to open an email to assess the size of the attachment and act appropriately.
  • It may make more sense for you to use the Files filter (mentioned above) along with additional filters, perhaps "email sent at", to create a list of Emails that can be removed from the database via the Bulk Actions button at the top of the Landing Page.

NOTE: Deleting an email from Workbooks does not delete it from your Exchange Server or your Email Client, e.g. Outlook.

3. Uploaded files

The Storage usage value of Uploaded files refers to files uploaded to Notes that are related to any type of Workbooks Record and the upload library. The things to consider when trying to reduce this usage are;

• Investigate the Uploaded files within the Upload Library;
  • Are there any duplicated files?
  • Are there any files that can be reduced in size? (it is possible to upload an image and resize it to purposes - are there any large images that can be replaced with smaller ones?)
  • Are there any uploaded files that are no longer needed? Perhaps an image associated with a closed Marketing Campaign or an old company logo?
• Create a Report to find Records with Uploaded files;
  • It is possible to build and run a Report that identify the Records that have associated Notes, but not whether those Notes have attached files. The Notes will have to be checked individually.
    • Separate Reports will need to be created for each Record type, i.e. Customer Contracts, People and Organisations, etc.
• Do the files need to be stored in Workbooks?
  • Rather than uploading your files into Workbooks, you could instead upload them to an Online Storage System, and store the url to that file on a Note (of type 'Link') against the record.