Delete all items in a list

Clear a list's contents, keep the list

Empties a SharePoint list without deleting the list itself, so its columns, views and settings survive. Preview it first to see exactly what would go; the run itself always asks you to confirm before anything is deleted.

What it does

• How many items are in scope and what they are, before anything is deleted.
• What a date limit would leave behind, if you only want to clear items older than a certain point.
• What actually happened, per item, once the run finishes.

How it runs

1. Sign in and pick the list. One list.
2. Set the options. Recycle bin or permanent, and optionally only items older than a date.
3. Preview (recommended). Counts what is in scope. Nothing is deleted at this point, and the run reads the list again rather than trusting the preview.
4. Confirm, then it runs. Recycling asks you to confirm; permanent deletion shows a red warning first. Cancel offers Finish the current item, Stop now, or Keep running. Nothing is left half-written: an item is either done or not started.

How it works

The run reads the whole list, every item and any folders in it, with a read that works on lists larger than the list view threshold. Each item is tested against what you chose: the rows you ticked in the picker (ticking nothing means the whole list, and ticking a folder means everything inside it), then any created-before or modified-before date, and any name or size filter. When a date filter is on, an item with no date is kept. A preview takes exactly the same walk and removes nothing. The run itself reads the list again rather than reusing the preview, so it acts on the list as it stands when you approve.

Items that are not folders are removed as they are found, a small group at a time, each one moved to the site recycle bin or, only if you chose permanent deletion, deleted outright. Folders are held back until everything else has been dealt with and are then removed deepest first, so a folder is never removed ahead of a folder inside it. When any filter is on, no folder is removed at all: removing a folder takes everything in it, including items the filter was meant to keep, so a filtered run removes only the matching items and leaves every folder standing.

SharePoint answers for each item separately. An item that cannot be removed is counted as failed with SharePoint's reason, and the run carries on with the next one. An item that has already gone when the run reaches it, because someone else removed it, is counted on its own as already gone, never as a removal. If the read of the list stops part way, the items already read are still removed, but no folder is, because the run has not seen everything inside them; the result is marked incomplete and those folders are listed as kept.

Before each group is sent, the run writes down on this computer what it is about to remove, and afterwards what actually happened to each item. The report and the history entry are built from that record, so a run that is stopped or fails part way still accounts for every item it had already removed. Every preview and every run, finished or not, is placed in Report History. The list itself, with its columns, views and settings, is never removed or changed.

What you get

An Excel workbook, named like contoso-delete-list-20260901-142207.xlsx, kept in Report History whether or not you save it. Written for the preview and again for the run, so you have a record of what was there before.

Deleted Items sheet

One row per item, with what happened to it.

Summary sheet

Scope, options, counts and totals.

What you need

• Write access to the list. Permanent deletion generally needs site collection administrator.

What it will not do

• The list itself is kept. To remove the list, delete it in SharePoint.
• Recycled items still count against your storage quota until the recycle bin is purged. The Recycle bin report shows how much.
• Permanent deletion cannot be undone. It is a mode you choose, never a default.

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