DjangoDjango

Cleanup Files (and Images) On Model Delete in Django

Jun 01, 2014 · Updated: Jun 09, 2022 · by Tim Kamanin

In Django, if you delete a model that has Filefield or Imagefield, the related files aren't deleted from the filesystem. You can fix that in two steps:

  1. Add filecleanup function, that'll take care of deleting files attached to a model:

    import os
    from django.core.files.storage import default_storage
    from django.db.models import FileField
    
    
    def file_cleanup(sender, **kwargs):
        """
        File cleanup callback used to emulate the old delete
        behavior using signals. Initially django deleted linked
        files when an object containing a File/ImageField was deleted.
    
        Usage:
        >>> from django.db.models.signals import post_delete
        >>> post_delete.connect(file_cleanup, sender=MyModel, dispatch_uid="mymodel.file_cleanup")
        """
        for fieldname in sender._meta.get_all_field_names():
            try:
                field = sender._meta.get_field(fieldname)
            except:
                field = None
    
        if field and isinstance(field, FileField):
            inst = kwargs["instance"]
            f = getattr(inst, fieldname)
            m = inst.__class__._default_manager
            if (
                hasattr(f, "path")
                and os.path.exists(f.path)
                and not m.filter(
                    **{"%s__exact" % fieldname: getattr(inst, fieldname)}
                ).exclude(pk=inst._get_pk_val())
            ):
                try:
                    default_storage.delete(f.path)
                except:
                    pass
    

  2. In models.py, add post_delete signal to catch model deletion event:

    models.py
    from django.db import models
    from django.db.models.signals import post_delete
    from .utils import file_cleanup
    
    # ... models code goes here ...
    
    post_delete.connect(
        file_cleanup, sender=Image, dispatch_uid="gallery.image.file_cleanup"
    )
    

And that's all. As you see in the example above, my sender is Image model, and when it's get deleted, it'll fire file_cleanup function that will take care of cleaning up files.

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