How to delete retired content from content library

[Vineet Yadav1]

We are using EC Pro portal and configured content like Rich content,banner which display on portal.

There is not delete option to delete the content even after making inactive.

Is its OOTB behavior.

[Pooja_Patil]

@Vineet Yadav1 

This is OOB behavior for Content Versioning feature. Old versions are set to active false, content with state published cannot be deleted.
Refer - https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/employee-cente...

Property that enables content versioning - Content Publishing > Advanced > Properties

Please mark this as helpful and accepted solution if applicable.

[Andrea44]

So if I want to remove a content record that is published and has previous retired versions, how do I do that? Is there a way to retire a content record and not create a new draft version like it does when I checkout a record? I.e. something like a "retire content" option? 

[Pooja_Patil]

You could set the content to active false, if the current published content is no longer needed.

Note that content visibility is driven by the availability dates on the publish plan (schedule content), so if the dates have passed there is no need to deactivate the content.

May I know the need so I can help better?

[Andrea44]

Thanks, I would not have the need to actually delete content records if it wasn't for us having an issue with content governance that results in multiple draft or published versions when checking out/publishing a record. They all have the same version number so it basically gets stuck and fails when we try to move forward.

I have created a case with the support but they have not found a reason or a solution yet. Our workaround thus far has been to clone the record, allowing us to continue working on the content from there. I thought deleting the duplicates might solve the issue but as you say, it is not possible. And I am not able to set them as inactive either as clicking "save" or "checkout" only loads for several minutes and then fails. This seems to only happen when we have about 5-10+  versions, not all the time. Very strange and frustrating!