Constantly deleting files
Asked by mbezensek:

It seems like SourceTree is constantly deleting certain avatar images. My thrash is showing that it contains items, I clear it, then after a while certain items are in the trash again. It seems to have something to do with gravatar images.


Answers:
author: Mike Corsaro
body: Hello everyone! This will be fixed in the next release, which should be in beta very soon. This was caused by a small change that moved deleted files in the working copy to the recycling bin, but ended up applying to all removed files.

comments: author: Chip Elmer
body: Thank you!


author: Hengzhi Shao
body: Why does a git client ever need to move file to recycle bin instead of perm delete?

Does that mean every time I switch a branch, tons of files end up in recycle bin?

If that were the design choice SourceTree is going with, please give an option to "always permanently delete file, and never move file to recycle bin"


author: minnsey
body: No, Git actions and the files they effect are handled by git.exe, or libgit2, and its configuration.  

This issue only effects file management from Sourcetree, e.g. gravatars something git.exe has no concept of.


author: wkoot
body: Turned off loading gravatar images entirely. Harsh, but solves the problem.

Under Options \> General \> Commit Settings \> Load avatar images from gravatar.com

comments: author: Chip Elmer
body: Thanks for this suggestion. I'll be trying out this workaround as well until a fix is implemented.


author: ClawHammer
body: Same here, still no fix for this issue

![2019-10-21_2225.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/70131i743BCD55FBC6D8AA/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "2019-10-21_2225.png")

comments: author: Mike Corsaro
body: Apologies for the delay on the next update with this fix. I'm expecting QA testing to be complete this week and the rollout to begin hopefully next week.

Things have been a bit hectic around here. We've got some exciting things to share soon.


author: deep.pancholi
body: [@Mike Corsaro](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/842547) any updates reagrding the release? I am still finding random files in my recycle bin.


author: Mike Corsaro
body: Sourcetree 3.3.6 is being progressively rolled-out now, but you may manually [download it here](https://product-downloads.atlassian.com/software/sourcetree/windows/ga/SourceTreeSetup-3.3.6.exe).


author: deep.pancholi
body: Thanks! I will update and see if it is resolved or not.


author: chrisadipascual
body: I thought I had a virus. Source Tree keeps generating gravatar files in the recycle bin


author: Dan_Amir
body: Same here and it's quite annoying. I want to see my Recycle Bin clean.


author: Ana Retamal
body: Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Why do you suspect that it is Sourcetree deleting these images? Are these images part of one of your repositories? Can you give us some more context so we can understand where the issue is coming from?

Let us know,

Ana

comments: author: mbezensek
body: Here's a screenshot of the Recycle bin. As you can see the file was deleted from the SourceTrees cache folder, this is why I suspect Sourcetree is responsible for deleting them. Maybe you should just do a delete without adding the file to the recycle bin?

![sourcetree.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/65566i8CE8904B48089A5C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sourcetree.png")


author: mbezensek
body: I just checked the recycle bin again and there are some additional files, not only avatars. It seems like some json files are also being deleted![sourcetree2.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/65568i6F68EC3E0C0605FB/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sourcetree2.png")ed.


author: minnsey
body: The json files are user analytics data. Sourcetree records clicks etc then packages them into temporary json files before bulk submitting. After that it deletes the temp file.  

Sourcetree pulls gravatar icons to display against accounts.  

I'm guessing here but I suspect it just periodically deletes the existing one and gets it again to ensure it has the latest version. Alternatively it might be just part of the download process before the final file is written to its final location.  

Finally there was a recent change in Sourcetree to support delete to recycle bin. I may well be that previously these files were explicitly deleted but now the delete to recycle bin option is on they go to the bin.


author: mbezensek
body: I don't want them to go to recycle bin. I don't think the user expects that.


author: James_Hough
body: Same happens here. Even though it is a minor irritation. I still request that you fix this in a future release. It isn't the highest priority, but it was enough of an irritation that I had to Google this issue. I also knew right away that it was caused by Sourcetree because of the file locations.

I have used the software for years and (presumably) the same user analytics uploads and the same gravatar image cache was part of previous releases but they didn't end up in the recycle bin like this until v 3.2.6


author: minnsey
body: I'm not currently on Windows but I believe this is an optional setting and can be flicked back to hard delete.  

For my own information, what is it you don't like about these files going to the recycle bin by default? It all helps to understand.


author: James_Hough
body: When you say this can be disabled, is the option called "Keep backups on destructive operations"? That appears to be the only one that has a name similar to what you describe.

I have no problem with Sourcetree putting the deleted files in the Recycle Bin *when the action was initiated by the user*. In other words: if I went into my repo and deleted a bunch of files then those files can go to the bin.

This, above, is the type of behaviour of programs like VS Code. I see things in the recycle bin that I know why they are there. I can recover my own stupid actions.

![vscode.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/66297i8545F8164B573D5D/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "vscode.png")

However, programs like VS Code are also doing a bunch of *internal* actions, all day long. VS Code will add, remove, modify several files. Some are in Temp locations on my computer and others are in dedicated hidden folders like the ".vs" folder. However, none of those *internal* actions every end up in the recycle bin.