Purge workflow data

 The Purge workflow data provides the option to delete historic data from the Nintex Workflow database. This option is also available as a NWAdmin operation. Reasons that data may need to be removed:

• Deleting old data to decrease the size of the Nintex Workflow content database(s).
• Deleting data added during testing of a workflow.
• Deleting data from lists that have been deleted. 

Workflow data can be purged globally for the web farm, a specific site collection or individual sites.

To access the Purge workflow data page

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click Nintex Administration.
2. On the Nintex Administration page, under Inventory and reporting, click Purge workflow data.

To purge workflow data

1. Navigate to the Purge workflow data settings.
2. In the Select workflow instances to purge, specify filters to select the workflow instances for which data will be purged.
• Where the list or library has been deleted: removes historic data for any workflows that are associated to a list that has been deleted.
• Use custom filter: set the filter parameters
• Initiator is: removes historic data for workflows that were started by a specific user.
• Instance ID is: removes historic data for a specified workflow instance where the instance ID matches the GUID.
• Last activity before local is: removes historic data for workflow where the last action was before a specific time, specified in server local time.
• List ID is: removes historic data for workflows associated with a specific internal GUID of a list. 
• List name is: removes historic data for workflows associated with a specific list name. Please note that this option is only available when purging workflow data on a site level.
• State is: removes historic data for workflows with a specific state (Completed, Cancelled, Error).
• Workflow name is: removes historic data for workflows with a specific name.
3. Click on Query. This will provide a preview of the database entries matching all entered criteria.
4. Click on Purge. This will delete historic data as specified from the content database(s).

Note: Once data has been purged, it cannot be recovered without restoring a backed up version of the Nintex Workflow content database.