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Clean up a space with the content manager

The content manager is an administrator tool available in Confluence Premium and Enterprise.

The content manager is a tool that space admins of Confluence Premium or Enterprise can use to efficiently manage all content in a space (pages and whiteboards).

It inserts a duplicate view of the content tree into an informational table. This allows admins to assess their content before applying actions, like archive or change owner, to hundreds of selections at a time.

Teammates and administrators of Confluence Standard don’t have access to this tool, but they can archive a nested group or delete a nested group, directly from the content tree.

The content manager table upon landing. No titles are selected. A Filters dropdown appears top-left above the table.

Filters and actions

The following filters and actions are available in the content manager, and we’re continuing to build out new functionality.

Let us know what other filters and actions you’d like to see here, by clicking the Give Feedback banner in Space settings.

Available filters

  • Last active (Over 7 days ago, over 1 month ago, Over 3 months ago, Over 6 months ago)

  • Pages without active owners

  • Statuses

  • Labels

  • Content types (databases, folders, pages, live docs, smart links, whiteboards)

  • Contributors

  • Last updated

  • Created

Available actions

As a best practice we recommend using the content manager for heavy bulk cleanup — and using automation rules (another premium feature) to keep things tidy moving forward.

 

To filter inactive pages

  1. Go to the space in Confluence Cloud.

  2. Next to your space's name in the sidebar, select More actions (•••), then Space settings.

  3. Select Content manager.

  4. Open the Last active dropdown above the table.

  5. Select a timeframe from the dropdown.

The content manager shows the Inactive pages filter selected. A dropdown within the filter shows a default range of 6 months.

“Last active” won’t return a complete list. It specifically filters pages that don’t have children. This serves as a safety measure due to the way permissions are inherited in Confluence:

Nested content inherits view permissions from the parent by default. If either the child or parent are moved without first setting specific permissions for each page, there is a risk of accidentally revealing content to an unintended audience.

To archive or delete a nested group in its entirety, select the preferred action from the parent’s More actions menu. You’ll see an option to include nested content when you archive or delete.

After a nested group is archived, inherited permissions will remain intact in the archive — and in the content tree if the nested group is restored.

 

To filter pages with deactivated owners

  1. Go to the space in Confluence Cloud.

  2. Next to your space's name in the sidebar, select More actions (•••), then Space settings.

  3. Select Content manager.

  4. Select the Owner dropdown.

  5. Select Deactivated.

  6. Select one or more deactivated users or use the search bar to find a specific user.

To archive, delete, change owner, change status, run an automation, or convert to live docs

The content tree in the table shows all published pages and whiteboards. Drafts are excluded because they are only visible to their author. Databases are excluded because they are still in beta.

  1. Apply a filter (optional).

    1. Last active shows pages that haven’t been viewed, updated, or commented on.

      • Pages with children are excluded as a precaution (see the warning above).

    2. Selecting deactivated in the Owner field shows pages owned by users who are deactivated.

  2. Use the checkboxes to make selections.

    • Available actions appear after selecting a checkbox in a floating toolbar.

  3. Apply an action.

    1. Archive up to 500 items at a time.

      • This moves content to the space’s archive where it can still be viewed but won’t clutter the content tree.

    2. Delete up to 100 items at a time.

      • This moves content to the trash where an admin can permanently purge it.

    3. Change owner of up to 100 items at a time.

    4. Change status of a content item

    5. Automation lets you apply an automation rule to selected content

    6. Convert to live docs to convert selected pages into live docs

The toolbar for content manager when the user has selected content

Selecting a checkbox beside parent content will automatically select its nested items as well. Expand the nested group to view and deselect them.

Keyboard shortcuts

  • Press and hold Shift to make a selection of multiple rows at once

  • Press and hold Command (or Alt) to select a checkbox without its nested items

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