---
schema_version: "1"
id: 185c7f20dab537749b91ced1cf8c07a72f21c19919b68601558d1720851bdb0a
title: Removing Outdated Objects in B2C Commerce
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/cc/264-0-0/b2c_removing_outdated_objects.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=cc.b2c_removing_outdated_objects.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 580916768e8ed49396a722663df5c9137c65786a6c212e1fcc8d4fe4d008bbd2
description: How you remove outdated objects depends on whether you enrich the data from your backend system with more attributes in Business Manager. It also depends on the type of business object you want to remove. B2C Commerce generally recommends creating feeds of objects to delete, imported using the DELETE mode, to safely remove all types of objects, regardless of whether they have enriched data or not.
products:
  - Commerce
  - B2C Commerce
release: "264"
---
# Removing Outdated Objects in B2C Commerce

How you remove outdated objects depends on whether you enrich the data from your backend system with more attributes in Business Manager. It also depends on the type of business object you want to remove. B2C Commerce generally recommends creating feeds of objects to delete, imported using the DELETE mode, to safely remove all types of objects, regardless of whether they have enriched data or not.

## Removing Catalog Objects

Most merchants import product objects from a backend feed and then enrich the objects in Business Manager with URLs or other web-specific attributes. In this case, the usual import mode is MERGE. This mode, however, doesn’t delete objects from the database. Therefore, products remain in the database until you delete them.

You have the following options to delete unwanted catalog objects:

- DELETE feed - Create a feed containing objects you want to delete and import it using the DELETE mode. This mechanism is recommended, because it can be used with all types of objects and doesn't affect enriched data.
- Catalog feed syntax for delete - For catalog feeds only, Specify objects to remove in the feed itself, if your backend system can produce the required syntax. The catalog feed delete syntax isn't available for other types of feeds.
- Pipelet catalog delete - The ImportCatalog pipelet supports the following configuration options for the `ImportConfiguration` parameter.<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
            <colgroup>
              <col>
              <col>
            </colgroup>
            <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
              <tr class="">
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d122748e61">Option</th>
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d122748e64">Description</th>
              </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Option" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e61 ">
                  <div>
                    <pre class="line-numbers slds-box slds-box_x-small slds-theme_shade slds-m-top_medium slds-m-bottom_medium slds-scrollable_x"><code>key=deleteCatalog; value=true | false</code></pre>
                  </div>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e64 ">Deletes the catalog before the import. Use this mechanism as a
                  high-performance way to empty a catalog. However, if you use this
                  option it removes any enriching attributes added in Business Manager,
                  so use it only for unenriched objects.</td>

              </tr>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Option" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e61 ">
                  <div>
                    <pre class="line-numbers slds-box slds-box_x-small slds-theme_shade slds-m-top_medium slds-m-bottom_medium slds-scrollable_x"><code>key=replaceCustomAttributes; value=true| false </code></pre>
                  </div>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e64 ">Deletes custom attributes before import when used with UPDATE or
                  MERGE mode. Use this mechanism to automatically remove obsolete custom
                  attributes, but is faster than REPLACE mode.</td>

              </tr>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Option" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e61 ">
                  <div>
                    <pre class="line-numbers slds-box slds-box_x-small slds-theme_shade slds-m-top_medium slds-m-bottom_medium slds-scrollable_x"><code>key=replaceCustomAttributesExclusions; value=attrID1, attrID2, ...</code></pre>
                  </div>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d122748e64 ">Import of product custom attributes in REPLACE, MERGE, and UPDATE
                  mode doesn't replace the listed attributes. The
                  <code>replaceCustomAttributesExclusions</code> option is used in
                  combination with the <code>replaceCustomAttributes</code>
                  option.
                </td>

              </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>
- Business Manager object delete - Delete the objects in Business Manager. Business Manager object delete isn't recommended, unless you have only a few objects to delete.

Choose to remove the entire catalog or all custom attributes before import. But the instance doesn't contain full data while the feed imports. If the import feed isn't successful, only the data that was successfully imported exists in your instance database. Removing the entire catalog or all custom attributes before import isn't recommended for production systems. However, this strategy can be useful if you have different seasonal catalogs and you want to replace all the products. You can also use this strategy if you have multiple catalogs on staging. For example, suppose you have one catalog that is populated only by external vendors that you want to delete. Also, suppose that you have a second custom storefront catalog you want to preserve. For the second catalog, you can run an UPDATE to preserve the changes made already on STAGING.

## Removing Other Objects

You have the following options to delete objects:

- DELETE feed - Create a feed containing objects you want to delete and import it using the DELETE mode. The DELETE feed approach is recommended, because it can be used with all types of objects and doesn't affect enriched data.
- Business Manager object delete - Delete the objects in Business Manager. Business Manager object delete isn't recommended, unless you have only a few objects to delete.

Removing custom meta Data

The meta data import wizard in Business Manager provides an option to delete all meta data before the actual import. Use this option to automatically delete existing meta data and use the MERGE or UPDATE mode for a faster import.