# Delete a catalog, document type, or workflow: the dependency checklist

Find and clear every dependency — documents, queues, in-flight approvals, workflow rules, templates, and capture settings — before you delete, so the delete succeeds cleanly and nothing breaks afterward.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: system-administrator · Time: About 20 minutes · Last verified: 2026-08-30

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/delete-a-catalog-document-type-or-workflow

**Work through this checklist before deleting a catalog, document type, or workflow object, and the delete will either succeed cleanly or name exactly what still depends on it — with nothing left orphaned afterward.**

> **WARNING:** Deletion is permanent — both delete dialogs say "This action cannot be undone.", and they mean it. A successful catalog delete also removes its document types (with their fields and permissions), catalog-scoped user options, and workflow rules that reference the catalog.

## Why deletes get blocked

Content Central refuses to delete anything that something else still depends on. That's protection, not a fault: a delete that went through anyway would leave workflow rules firing at nothing and notifications going nowhere. Some dependents are easy to see (documents sitting in the catalog); the ones that trip people up are hidden — a **global** workflow rule using a message template that lives *inside* the catalog you're deleting, or an approval process shared across document types.

Dependencies are re-checked at the moment you confirm the delete, not just when the dialog opens, so a reference added minutes ago still blocks it — by design, to avoid a partial delete.

## Step 1: Preserve what you might need

The delete flow has no export or backup prompt — preservation is a manual step you do first.

- [ ] Search the catalog or document type and export any documents worth keeping. A catalog can't be deleted while it contains documents, and there is no recovering them afterward.
- [ ] Record anything you might rebuild later: field lists, workflow logic, approval routing. Screenshots are fine.
- [ ] Note who receives notifications from message templates in this catalog, so those people aren't silently dropped.

> **IMPORTANT:** Workflow actions can delete documents permanently ("Delete document permanently"). If a rule you're dismantling includes one, disable that rule *before* you start moving documents, so the cleanup itself doesn't trigger it.

## Step 2: The dependency inventory

Check each of these for the object you're deleting:

- [ ] **Documents** — move or delete every document in the catalog or document type.
- [ ] **Coding queue** — commit, move, or delete items waiting to be coded into it.
- [ ] **In-flight approvals and work queues** — let active approvals finish or remove those documents. An approval process can't be deleted while documents are moving through it.
- [ ] **Workflow rules, triggers, and actions** — anything referencing the object, including global workflow, not just workflow inside the same catalog.
- [ ] **Message templates** — templates inside the catalog that outside workflow or approval processes use, plus deadline reminders inside approval processes that send through them.
- [ ] **Capture jobs and QCards** — anything that files new documents into this catalog or document type. Retarget or disable them yourself so capture doesn't start failing after the delete.
- [ ] **Report templates** — reports that reference the approval process or fields you're removing.
- [ ] **Default document type** — the default can never be deleted. Use **Set as Default** on another type first.

> **WARNING:** Deleting a field or document type does not always clean up workflow that references it. A trigger checking a deleted field stays enabled and simply fails at evaluation time, logging errors. Remove trigger and action references *before* deleting the things they point at.

## Step 3: Delete from the bottom up

1. In catalog administration, open **Catalogs & Document Types**.

2. Remove workflow references first: edit rules that point at the object, or delete rules you no longer need. Deleting a rule also removes its trigger and action assignments automatically.
   
   **What you should see:** "Workflow rule deleted successfully"
   
   > note: A rule marked read-only can't be deleted ("This rule cannot be deleted"). A trigger or action still assigned to any rule refuses to delete until you remove it from those rules.

3. Delete now-unused templates, triggers, and actions. Each names its own blocker if something still uses it — for example "Template is used by workflow actions" or "Template is associated with approval processes". System templates can't be deleted at all.

4. Delete the document types, then the catalog. Each opens a confirmation dialog — **Delete Document Type** or **Delete Catalog** — asking you to confirm by name.
   
   **What you should see:** "Document type deleted successfully", then "Catalog deleted successfully". If instead the dialog shows a yellow alert titled **Workflow dependencies to resolve**, that's your remaining to-do list: each entry names the dependency and where it lives ("Catalog / Document Type" or "Global workflow").

*[Screenshot: The Delete Catalog dialog showing the yellow "Workflow dependencies to resolve" alert listing two blocking workflow references with their scopes.]*

## What each blocked-delete message means

| Message says | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| "Catalog contains {N} document(s)..." | Move or delete the documents, then retry |
| "...{N} coding-queue item(s). Commit, move, or delete those items..." | Clear the coding queue for that catalog or type |
| "Cannot delete the default document type..." | Set a different type as default first |
| "...used by {N} workflow dependency/dependencies: '{name}' in {scope}" | Open each listed rule, action, trigger, or approval process and remove the reference |
| "Approval process is in use by documents" | Let in-flight approvals finish or remove those documents |
| "This trigger/action is used by workflow rules..." | Remove it from those rules first |
| "This catalog/document type cannot be deleted because it is in use." | A dependency exists but the server didn't name it — see below |

> **NOTE:** Only system administrators can delete a catalog — anyone else sees "Only administrators can delete catalogs". Document type deletion also requires catalog-admin access to that document type.

## If the delete is refused without a reason — stop

A refusal that names its reason is the product doing its job: clear the dependency and retry. But treat these as a hard stop, not something to force:

- The generic "cannot be deleted because it is in use" message persists after you've cleared everything you can find.
- The delete (or an approval-process change along the way) fails with an error instead of a named dependency — shared deadline settings between approval processes are a known place this happens, and untangling them is a support repair, not a customer-side fix.

Contact support with: the object name and type, the exact message or error text, what you've already removed, and roughly when you tried. Don't work around a refused delete — it's protecting data you can't see.

## What's next

- [Duplicate a catalog or workflow](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/duplicate-a-catalog-or-workflow)
- [Offboard a user](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/offboard-a-user)