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To remove specific data, you can locate individual forms using the Submit History report and archive them as described on Archive Forms. This is available to all users; however it may be difficult to use with a large volume of forms.
Delete Forms
To delete a form in CommCare, you'll first need to archive it. Once a form is deleted, all associated data will be lost forever.
Please ensure you really want to delete the form. Once deleted, it's permanent and can't be recovered.
Steps to Delete a form
Navigate to Reports > Inspect Data > Submit History. Find the form you want to delete.
Before you can delete the form, you need to archive it. Click
Archive. Once the form is successfully archived, theDelete this formbutton will appear.
Click the
Delete this formbutton. This action will trigger a confirmation prompt.Read the message on the prompt carefully as it explains the implications of deleting a form.
Confirm your decision to delete the form. The system will then proceed with the deletion process.
Important Note:
As with archiving a form, deleting a form ensures any changes the form may have triggered to a case are undone. Here's how deleting a form will affect cases:
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Deleting Users
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Note that deleting a user triggers permanent deletion of all data associated with that user and cannot be undone. Please read the Notes & Warnings below, as well as the "Other Suggestions" section below before attempting to delete a user. |
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If you deleted a user, do not create another user with the same username. This can cause issues with your data.
If you just want to make sure that your users' case lists are clear you can Reassign Cases. However, forms are always associated with the user that submitted them, so if you reassign a case from User 1 to User 2 and then delete User 2, the case will no longer show up in any case list, but the forms will still show up when you search from User 1's submit history.
- When you move cases to a new user, you are ONLY moving the "case"– not the individual form submissions. It is strongly recommended that you NOT delete any "old" users if you want to be able to do any sort of data analysis. Individual form submissions will always remain linked to the user that submitted them–even if that user is no longer active. If you want to hide an old user's data you can "deactivate" the worker under the "settings & users" section of CommCareHQ.It is not possible to directly delete a form.
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After deleting the user, if the cases are still appearing in the case list on your mobile device, sync with server in order to remove them. If this doesn't work, you can try resetting the user's data (Clear User Data). |
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| Goal | Approach 1 (warnings) | Approach 2 (warnings) |
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| Get rid of cases | Archive or delete all of the forms that created the cases (other form data associated with the cases will still be accessible) | Reassign the cases to another a different user and then delete that user (it is not possible to reassign submitted forms) |
| Get rid of forms | Archive the forms (forms will still show up in Saved Daily Exports(then delete the form, if desired) | Delete the user that submitted the form (you cannot undo this action; all data submitted by the user will be permanently deleted) |
| Get rid of users | Delete the users (you cannot undo this action; all data submitted by the user will be permanently deleted) | Deactivate the users (this is useful if you want to temporarily hide them from worker monitoring reports, but will not hide any data associated with the users) |
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