Deleting Workflow Instances and History Records
Deleted workflow instances and history records cannot be recovered.
History records are created each time a workflow moves into a state, including the first state of the workflow. You can delete workflow instances and history records for finished workflow instances and view statistics on the Instances and History Records popup window.
Workflow instances and history records are deleted based on the length of time, in months, they have been stored. 3 months is the default setting, but you can specify a different length of time to base the deletion on.
The number of active and finished workflow instances displayed in the Statistics section on the Instances and History Records popup window is an estimate and not an exact total. The number of active and finished workflow instances are rounded down to the closest number of instances and records.
The following screenshot shows the location of the More menu:
To delete workflow instances and history records:
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Go to Customization > Workflow > Workflows.
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Click Edit next to the workflow that you want to delete workflow instances and history records for.
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From the More menu, select Instances and History Records.
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In the Instances and History Records popup window, in the Delete section, enter the number of months for the age of the workflow instances and related history records that you want to delete. To delete all of the workflow instances and related history records, enter 0.
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Click Delete.
To see the status of the deletion process, from the More menu, select Instances and History Records. Statuses include Scheduling, Waiting for execution, and the progress of the deletion process.
It can take days to delete a large number of history records. Only one deletion process is run at a time. If you initiate multiple deletion processes, they are queued in the order that they were initiated in. The deletion process begins when the preceding deletion process is finished.
A record of the deletion process is logged on the History tab on the Workflow Definition page. When the deletion process is complete, an email is sent to the user who initiated the deletion process.