Overview

The Vault Trash Bin is a critical feature in Autodesk Vault designed to safeguard users and organizations from accidental or premature data losses. By introducing a temporary holding area for deleted items, the Trash Bin enables both end-users and administrators to have greater control and peace of mind when managing sensitive or collaborative design information.

The Trash Bin provides several key benefits:

• Enable users to delete objects without fear of permanent loss safely
• Make it easy to restore items that were deleted by mistake
• Simplify compliance and auditing requirements for file and data deletions
• Empower administrators to manage vault space efficiently while providing recovery options

What the Trash Bin does

The Trash Bin automates the management of deleted files and folders in Vault:

• Temporarily stores deleted files and folders before permanent removal
• Maintains metadata about deleted items including who deleted them and when
• Provides sorting and filtering options to help locate specific deleted items
• Enables restoration of deleted items to their original locations
• Supports permanent deletion when items are no longer needed

How the Trash Bin works

When you delete a file or folder in Vault, it is moved to the Trash Bin rather than being permanently removed. The Trash Bin maintains a record of:

• File and folder names
• Original folder paths
• User who performed the deletion
• Date and time of deletion

Items remain in the Trash Bin until they are either restored to their original location or permanently deleted by an administrator or user with appropriate permissions.

Accessing the Trash Bin

You can access the Trash Bin through the Vault client:

1. Open the Vault client
2. Locate the Trash Bin icon in the left navigation pane
3. Click to display all items currently in the Trash Bin

The Trash Bin interface displays:

• List of deleted items, including files and folder names
• Property columns: Name, Folder Path, Deleted By, and Date Deleted
• Sorting and filtering options by date, type, or user
• Action buttons: Restore, Permanently Delete/Empty

User permissions

Only users with "Delete" privileges may move files to the Trash Bin. The original "Delete" rules still apply.

For permanent deletion from the Trash Bin, users need one of the following permissions:

• File Delete Conditional
• File Delete Unconditional

Best practices

Follow these guidelines when working with the Trash Bin:

• Regularly review the Trash Bin contents for potential recovery or permanent deletion
• Train team members on safe deletion protocols and recovery steps
• Set a retention period that balances operational flexibility with storage optimization
• Confirm recovery of any mission-critical content before emptying the Trash Bin
• Communicate clear policies regarding retention and purging to all users

Known limitations

The Trash Bin has several important limitations to consider:

• Trash Bin is not a substitute for full Vault backups or disaster recovery
• Only files and folders are supported
• Storage usage may temporarily increase if the Trash Bin is not managed
• Because of unique name validation, you may see an error when creating a file or folder with the same name as a deleted item, since it might still exist in the original location or Trash Bin

Troubleshooting tips

If you encounter issues with the Trash Bin:

• If unable to restore, check permissions or object dependencies
• Errors due to storage limits may require administrator intervention
• Confirm that auto-empty schedules do not conflict with compliance needs