Big Changes Coming: What You Need to Know About Our New Resource Deletion Update

New Resource Recovery System

We’re excited to announce that our new resource deletion update is almost ready to launch! Because this update brings several important changes to how users manage and delete resources, we wanted to make sure you have everything you need to navigate the new process smoothly. We’ve created a detailed guide that walks through all the updates, so you can feel confident and informed when the changes go live the week of April 28, 2025. Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming and how it will affect you.

Table of Contents
1. Garbage Collection Process
2. Resource Deletion Notification Emails
3. Home Page Resource Deletion Status Icons
4. Application Resource Deletion Status
5. Resource Recovery Tool

1. Garbage Collection Process

When a user deletes a resource (User-Deleted Resources) or when a resource hasn’t been used for an extended period (Inactive-Resources), the Garbage Collector moves it to the Garbage. These resources remain there for several months until they are permanently deleted (Purged) from L2’s system. In the weeks leading up to a resource’s permanent deletion, users will receive notification emails as a reminder.

2. Resource Deletion Notification Emails

Users with at least one resource scheduled for permanent deletion within the next 30 days will receive a notification email once a week. The notification will include details about the types of resources to be purged, the application in which they reside, and the number of days until they are permanently deleted. These details are broken down into the three deleted resource categories based on how soon they will be permanently deleted:

Links within the tables lead to the appropriate Data Mapping Application, where users can recover the deleted resources they wish to keep using the new Resource Recovery tool.

The following is an example notification email.

3. Home Page Resource Deletion Status Icons

Users will also get feedback on where they have deleted and soon to be purged resources on their Home Page. Applications with Deleted resources will have a status icon in the top right corner. This represents the total number of deleted resources. The color represents the soonest purge date. For example, below, the United States Consumers application has 2 deleted resources, at least one of which will be permanently deleted (purged) within the next 10 days. The Pennsylvania Voters application has 1 deleted resource to be purged between 10 and 30 days from now. And the Connecticut Voters application has 1 deleted resource to be deleted beyond 30 days from now.

Hovering over the icon reveals these details.

4. Application Resource Deletion Status

A new status component has been added to the information area in the top right of the application:

This component () gives a quick summary of the number of resources to be deleted within the next 10 days (red), 10-30 days, or more than 30 days. 

Hovering over the individual status colors reveals their description.

After clicking RECOVER , resources will appear back in their respective areas. Recovered Universes will be moved to the *Recovered folder. When Universes, Shapes, and Private Branches are recovered, “(recovered)” is added to the end of the resource’s name.