Content item purging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11422990-B2
Application number	US-201916569830-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2019
Priority date	Nov 12, 2013
Publication date	Aug 23, 2022
Grant date	Aug 23, 2022

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for content item purging are provided. A contact item purger, such as may be incorporated within a local client application of a content management system running on a user device, may leverage knowledge as to which items have been uploaded to the content management system, and how long such content items have been stored on the user device, to propose items for deletion from the user device so as to reclaim storage space. A contact item purger may run on one or more user devices, and may activate upon various triggering events, based on various conditions and parameters, with or without user interaction, thus maintaining available memory capacity at all times.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for reclaiming storage space at a computing device, the method comprising:
storing attributes at the computing device for tracking upload status of a set of content items locally stored within a file system of the computing device, the set of content items under management of a content management system;
based, at least in part, on the attributes for tracking upload status of the set of content items, identifying a plurality of content items, of the set of content items, that have all been previously uploaded to a datastore of the content management system; and
based, at least in part, on determining that the plurality of content items, in aggregate, occupy an amount of storage space in the file system exceeding a threshold amount, reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items, wherein the reclaiming of the storage space comprises:
storing attributes in the file system reflecting at least a synchronization update to a particular content item of the plurality of content items;
based at least in part on the attributes reflecting the synchronization update to the particular content item, determining that the particular content item in the file system is no longer synchronized to the datastore of the content management system;
based at least in part on the determining that the particular content item is no longer synchronized to the datastore, prompting for user input to confirm reclaiming of storage space in the file system occupied by the particular content item; and
reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the particular content item based, at least in part, on receiving the user input.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items is based, at least in part, on deleting one or more content items, of the plurality of content items, from the file system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items is based, at least in part, on storing, in the file system, a truncated version of each content item of one or more content item of the plurality of content items.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items is based, at least in part, on storing, in the file system, a downsampled version of each content item of one or more content items of the plurality of content items.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based, at least in part, on determining that each content item, of the plurality of content items, is stored in the file system for at least a threshold amount of time, performing the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an aggregate based, at least in part, on a sum of a corresponding size in the file system of each content item of the plurality of content items; and
based, at least in part, on determining that the aggregate exceeds the threshold amount, performing the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based, at least in part, on receiving user input confirming reclamation of storage space in the file system, performing the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based, at least in part, on determining that the computing device is operating on battery power and that a charge level of a battery of the computing device is above a threshold charge level, performing the identifying the plurality of content items, of the set of content items, that have all been previously uploaded to the datastore of the content management system.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based, at least in part, on determining that the computing device is operating on alternating current power, performing the identifying the plurality of content items, of the set of content items, that have all been previously uploaded to the datastore of the content management system.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based, at least in part, on determining that an amount of available storage space in the file system is below a threshold amount, performing the identifying the plurality of content items, of the set of content items, that have all been previously uploaded to the datastore of the content management system.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the data store is a cloud storage remote from the computing device; and
reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items further includes retaining copies of the plurality of content items in the datastore.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions capable, when executed by a computing device, of causing the computing device to perform:
storing attributes at the computing device for tracking synchronization status of a set of content items locally stored within a file system of the computing device, the set of content items under management of a content management system; and
in response to determining that an amount of available storage space in the file system at the computing device is below a predetermined amount;
identifying a plurality of content items, of the set of content items, that have all been previously synchronized to a datastore of the content management system; and
based, at least in part, on determining that the plurality of content items, in aggregate, occupy an amount of storage space in the file system exceeding a threshold amount, reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items, wherein the reclaiming of the storage space comprises:
storing attributes in the file system reflecting at least a synchronization update to a particular content item of the plurality of content items;
based at least in part on the attributes reflecting the synchronization update to the particular content item, determining that the particular content item in the file system is no longer synchronized to the datastore of the content management system;
based at least in part on the determining that the particular content item is no longer synchronized to the datastore, prompting for user input to confirm reclaiming of storage space in the file system occupied by the particular content item; and

reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the particular content item based, at least in part, on receiving the user input.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , further comprising instructions capable, when executed by the computing device, of causing the computing device to perform:
based, at least in part, on determining that each of the plurality of content items is stored in the file system for at least a predetermined number of days, performing the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , further comprising instructions capable, when executed by the computing device, of causing the computing device to perform the reclaiming storage space in the file system occupied by the plurality of content items based, at least in part, on generating and storing, in the file system, a thumbnail version of each of one or more of the plurality of content items; and wherein each content i

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Dwan Michael
• Grue Anthony
• Kluesing Daniel

Classifications

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• G06F16/215 Primary

  Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors · CPC title

• G06F16/162 Primary

  Delete operations (erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652) · CPC title