Delete Media Permanently (for real)

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  pikeralpha · Member · Dec 11, 2015 at 10:07 am

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  Title says it all. When I delete media with “Delete Permanently” it is still accessible (by using the URL from Google search) so how can we fix this without messing things up? I mean now it just adds a number to the filename (URL) but I want it removed, for real, like permanently… so how does that work?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  cobalteye · Member · Dec 11, 2015 at 11:11 am

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  Hi pikeralpha,

  According to this support doc:
  https://en.support.wordpress.com/media/deleting-files/

  “Images (and other media) that you delete from WordPress.com still may be cached by search engines. In those cases, you should contact the search engine directly to find out how to remove the images from their servers.”

  This Google doc will help:
  https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4628134?hl=en

  Cheers!

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  pikeralpha · Member · Dec 11, 2015 at 1:53 pm

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  Thanks, but the problem is that the media is kept on the WordPress server(s) when they should be removed – as the text says; permanently.

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  cobalteye · Member · Dec 11, 2015 at 3:33 pm

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  I wasn’t aware that media is still kept on WordPress servers after deletion.

  Once permanently deleted, files certainly can’t be recovered according to the support docs.