A tidy ArcGIS Online organization for the holidays - Identifying and deleting unnecessary items

[Kylie]

As the year comes to a close and semesters are wrapping up, it's a good time to look at the content in your org and clean up the leftovers nobody needs. Your first sweep through should focus on large items (which use up credits), old items, and unused items. Here are tips for using the Status tab and reports to identify such items in your organization.

Note: To follow these steps, you need to be an administrator in your ArcGIS organization. 

Find large and old items in the ArcGIS Online Status tab

The Status tab help you find large and old items to review. Here's how to work with the Status tab:

1. In the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Organization.
2. In the blue tabs, choose Status.
   
3. Scroll down to the Usage Aggregation by Type chart. Click Storage (in the ring or legend).
4. Click Feature Storage (in the ring or legend).
   
5. In the table below the chart, click the line for Standard Feature Data Store.
6. Click the blue View item details button below the table.
   
7. While the table is sorted by size by default, you can click a header (such as Size, Created, or Modified) to sort the table on that property.
8. Click on an item in the Database Storage Details to see its item page. You can read more about it and manage the item, including moving or deleting it. 
   

   

Find large, old, and unused items in a report

An item report spreadsheet includes the size, view count, date last viewed, date created, and date modified of the items in your ArcGIS organization. You can download and sort the spreadsheet to find items to review. Here's how to create and use a report:

1. In the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Organization.
2. In the blue tabs, choose Status.
3. In the tabs at the top of the Status page, click Reports.
4. Click Create report.
5. Choose Single report.
   
6. Chose a report type of Item.
7. Click Create report.
   
8. Once the report is created, download and open the spreadsheet.
   
9. With the spreadsheet open, you can sort it by the columns for date created, date modified, view counts, file storage size, feature storage size, and date last viewed to find the items you need to review.
   
10. To review an item, copy its Item ID from the spreadsheet and paste it into the search in ArcGIS Online.
11. On the search result, click More options (the three dots).
12. Click View details to see its item page. You can read more about it and manage the item, including moving or deleting it.
    

Get cleaning

Large items in particular use up credits for storage, and unused items cause clutter that can make it harder to find items of interest. Don't wait for the dust to settle - make a plan to get your organization cleaned up now. 

[ChristopherCounsell]

Hi @Kylie thanks for sharing.

Just a heads up that Step #8 there is a defect with the database storage details. It includes file attachments in that size which is a bit misleading. Most users will want to reduce storage to save credits and it is 200x more costly to store features than file attachments. Sorting by largest item here does not actually show the largest items in the database. Much better to export a report and go by the feature storage size in step #9.

[Kylie]

Thanks for that info @ChristopherCounsell! I've included a note to that effect with this in our (in progress) org management guide for schools.