Deleted Projects Collection

deletedProjects keeps a project after it is deleted: one document per deleted project, with a copy of the whole project document and who deleted it. Web writes it in services/web/app/src/Features/Project/ProjectDeleter.mjs; the schema is services/web/app/src/models/DeletedProject.mjs. When the hard deletion delay has passed, the expiry destroys the project’s data and empties project, but the record with deleterData stays.

A project in the trash is not here: trashing only adds the user to trashed of the project, see Projects Collection.

Fields

Field	Type	Meaning	Source
_id	ObjectId	Record id, not the project id.	DeletedProject.mjs:26
project	Object	Copy of the projects document at deletion, with the project schema. null once the record has expired.	DeletedProject.mjs:29, ProjectDeleter.mjs:277-281,400-410
deleterData	Object	Who deleted the project, and a summary that stays after expiry. Keys whose value is undefined are left out.	DeletedProject.mjs:7-24,28, ProjectDeleter.mjs:247-275
deleterData.deletedAt	Date	Time of deletion. The expiry runs projectHardDeletionDelay after it: 90 days, or OVERLEAF_PROJECT_HARD_DELETION_DELAY milliseconds (services/web/config/settings.defaults.js:742-744).	DeletedProject.mjs:10, ProjectDeleter.mjs:248
deleterData.deleterId	ObjectId	User who deleted the project. Missing when no user did it directly, see deletedReason.	DeletedProject.mjs:8, ProjectDeleter.mjs:249-250
deleterData.deleterIpAddress	String	IP address of that request. Set to null on expiry.	DeletedProject.mjs:9, ProjectDeleter.mjs:251,406
deleterData.deletedReason	String	Why the project was deleted, see the table below. Older records have none.	DeletedProject.mjs:23, ProjectDeleter.mjs:252
deleterData.deletedProjectId	ObjectId	_id of the deleted project. Lookups of one record use it.	DeletedProject.mjs:11, ProjectDeleter.mjs:253
deleterData.deletedProjectOwnerId	ObjectId	owner_ref of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:12, ProjectDeleter.mjs:254
deleterData.deletedProjectCollaboratorIds	Array of ObjectId	collaberator_refs of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:13, ProjectDeleter.mjs:255
deleterData.deletedProjectReadOnlyIds	Array of ObjectId	readOnly_refs of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:14, ProjectDeleter.mjs:256
deleterData.deletedProjectReviewerIds	Array of ObjectId	reviewer_refs of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:15, ProjectDeleter.mjs:257
deleterData.deletedProjectReadWriteTokenAccessIds	Array of ObjectId	tokenAccessReadAndWrite_refs of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:16, ProjectDeleter.mjs:258-259
deleterData.deletedProjectReadOnlyTokenAccessIds	Array of ObjectId	tokenAccessReadOnly_refs of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:17, ProjectDeleter.mjs:267
deleterData.deletedProjectReadWriteToken	String	tokens.readAndWrite of the project, when it had one.	DeletedProject.mjs:18, ProjectDeleter.mjs:268
deleterData.deletedProjectReadOnlyToken	String	tokens.readOnly of the project, when it had one.	DeletedProject.mjs:19, ProjectDeleter.mjs:269
deleterData.deletedProjectLastUpdatedAt	Date	lastUpdated of the project.	DeletedProject.mjs:20, ProjectDeleter.mjs:270
deleterData.deletedProjectOverleafId	Number	overleaf.id of the project, when set.	DeletedProject.mjs:21, ProjectDeleter.mjs:260-262
deleterData.deletedProjectOverleafHistoryId	Mixed	overleaf.history.id of the project, when set.	DeletedProject.mjs:22, ProjectDeleter.mjs:263-266

deletedReason values (services/web/app/src/Features/Project/DeletedProjectReasons.mjs:1-8):

Value	Set when	deleterId
user	A user deletes the project from the project list (services/web/app/src/Features/Project/ProjectController.mjs:281-291), or an admin deletes it in the admin panel (services/web/modules/admin-tools/app/src/AdminProjectManager.mjs:486-491)	set
account-deletion	The owner’s account is deleted (ProjectDeleter.mjs:82-95, called from services/web/app/src/Features/User/UserDeleter.mjs:66)	missing
zip-import-failure	Creating a project from an uploaded zip fails (services/web/app/src/Features/Uploads/ProjectUploadManager.mjs:58-61,103-104)	missing
clone-failure	Copying a project fails; the broken copy is deleted (services/web/app/src/Features/Project/ProjectDuplicator.mjs:202-207)	missing
script	services/web/scripts/soft_delete_project.mjs:15-17	missing
github-import-failure	Defined, but nothing in this repo uses it

Who Writes It

Code	What it does
ProjectDeleter.mjs:189-293 (deleteProject)	Flushes the project, archives its docs out of Mongo, removes it from tags, upserts the record and deletes the projects document.
ProjectDeleter.mjs:295-342 (undeleteProject)	Inserts the project again under the name <name> (Restored) (made unique for the owner) and no longer archived, then deletes the record. Fails with project_too_old_to_restore once project is null. Called from the admin panel: restore one project (AdminProjectManager.mjs:497-515) or restore a deleted user with the projects deleted with the account (services/web/modules/admin-tools/app/src/AdminUserManager.mjs:678-689).
ProjectDeleter.mjs:344-416 (expireDeletedProject)	Destroys the docs, history, chat and project audit log of the project and fires the projectExpired hook, then sets project and deleterData.deleterIpAddress to null. If the project exists again, it only deletes the stale record.
ProjectDeleter.mjs:97-146 (expireDeletedProjectsAfterDuration)	Expires a batch of records older than the delay. Route POST /internal/expire-deleted-projects-after-duration (services/web/app/src/router.mjs:842-846), which the Community Edition cron calls every hour at minute 20 when ENABLE_CRON_RESOURCE_DELETION is true (server-ce/cron/delete-projects.sh:10-23, server-ce/config/crontab-deletion:3). One project: POST /internal/project/:projectId/expire-deleted-project (router.mjs:852-856), or Purge in the admin panel (AdminProjectManager.mjs:517-529).

Who Reads It

Code	What it does
AdminProjectManager.mjs:129-140,204-272 (module admin-tools)	Lists the deleted projects that have not expired.
AdminProjectManager.mjs:418-454	Shows one deleted project with its owner and deleter.
AdminProjectManager.mjs:178-191	Finds projects by a link-sharing token, deleted ones included (project.tokens.*).
AdminUserManager.mjs:678-684	Finds the projects to bring back with a restored user: owned by the user and deleted with reason account-deletion or none.

Indexes

Name	Keys	Options	Migration
deleterData.deletedProjectId_1	{ "deleterData.deletedProjectId": 1 }	unique	20190912145002_create_deletedProjects_indexes.mjs, made unique by 20200210121103_uniqueify-deletedthings-indexes.mjs
deleterdata_deletedProjectOwnerId_1	{ "deleterData.deletedProjectOwnerId": 1 }		20200120163346_atlas_recommended_indexes.mjs
deleterData.deletedAt_1	{ "deleterData.deletedAt": 1 }	partial: project is an object	20250126195914_update_deleterData.deletedAt_index.mjs (replaces the plain index from 20190912145002_create_deletedProjects_indexes.mjs)

Migrations are in tools/migrations/.

Notes

• Modules that listen to projectExpired delete their own data of the project: git-bridge (services/web/modules/git-bridge/index.mjs:37), github-sync (services/web/modules/github-sync/index.mjs:56), gitlab-sync (services/web/modules/gitlab-sync/index.mjs:46), gitea-sync (services/web/modules/gitea-sync/index.mjs:46) and dropbox (services/web/modules/dropbox/index.mjs:54).
• An expired record is never deleted: deleterData stays for good, only project and the IP address are emptied.
• Mongoose also gives deleterData its own _id, which nothing reads.