Do pages in the trash still get indexed by Google?
Asked by Daniel Drahnak:

I deleted a page a few years ago, but did not purge it from the trash. Recently, I came across this page in a public search and it linked to the URL which is the page in the trash. Is this the expected behavior?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi Daniel,

Google can index any pages it's able to see using Anonymous access.

Once you delete a page, if it's still in the trash, then Confluence will still serve a page that looks like this:

![Screen Shot 2018-01-08 at 12.32.33 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/12144i355F8CF082111078/image-dimensions/479x279?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2018-01-08 at 12.32.33 PM.png")

I would say that Google can still index and serve these results, until you purge it, then it will take a few weeks to completely remove from Google's search results.

You can request a [removal of outdated content](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6349986?hl=en) from Google. According to Google, this can take 1-2 days after the request is made.

I hope that clarifies things! Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon


author: Daniel Drahnak
body: Thanks again Shannon. The specific notification that I'm seeing is when I delete a page from the trash, I get a notification for the removal of a file from the page. I don't get a notification for the page deletion. So if a page has 10 files, I get 10 notifications for each attachment removal.

Do you know if this would fall under the page trashed notification or the edit page notification? Is there a comprehensive reference that documents the expected behavior of the 83 modules of this system plugin?

Kind regards,

-Daniel

comments: author: Daniel Drahnak
body: This looks promising, but my version of Confluence 5.6.6 doesn't appear to have this add-on: <https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-disable-notifications-for-attachments-action-862622270.html>


author: Shannon S
body: Hi Daniel,

I got a 5.6.6 instance up and running, and it seems that either that feature hadn't been added yet, or was called something else.

I found **Confluence Content Notifications Plugin** instead, but there were no macros that match the one you'd need to disable in the more recent versions of Confluence. There is a **page-trashed-notification**. It's possible this could do it, so you're welcome to try that out.

At any rate, you may already be aware that 5.6.6 has reached end of life and is no longer supported. I would recommend updating to at least 5.10 which doesn't reach end of life until June.

Regards,

Shannon


author: Daniel Drahnak
body: Thanks for checking on this Shannon. We have a upgrade on our roadmap, but not for a few months, unfortunately. Just to confirm, are you saying that the page-trashed-notification module may control notifications for the deletion of pages as well as attachments in 5.6.6.?

In which case, I would need to perform the Confuence dark features routine as well as disable this module, yes?


author: Shannon S
body: Apologies for the delay, Daniel.

Through our testing, we have determined it is not possible to disable those notifications in Confluence 5.6.6. The feature in [How to disable notifications for attachments action](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-disable-notifications-for-attachments-action-862622270.html?_ga=2.102801029.40165038.1515399801-1429028762.1511781728) was added in a later version.

I can confirm in the earliest supported version (without you being End-of-Life), 5.10.0, the Confluence File Notifications are there. If you require this feature, I would recommend upgrading at least to that. Be aware that 5.10 will be EOL later this year, however, and you will need to upgrade again after that.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon


author: Daniel Drahnak
body: Thanks for the confirmation Shannon. Very helpful. After purging a page from the trash, I no longer see it in the public Google Search results as you indicated.

One issue with this is that we have hundreds and potentially thousands of pages in the trash of our public spaces. In the past, we've had issues spamming space watchers because a notification gets sent out when we delete a page in the trash and when all of the page attachments are deleted even more notifications are sent.

Is there any way to easily \& temporarily suspend notifications at the space level or sitewide? I only see how to remove watchers from a page.

Thanks again!

-Daniel

comments: author: Shannon S
body: Hi Daniel,

Perhaps this modification would work?

[How to globally disable e-mail notifications with page content](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-globally-disable-e-mail-notifications-with-page-content-718670714.html?_ga=2.4036533.40165038.1515399801-1429028762.1511781728)

You could disable the page trashed notification. You'll want to make sure to edit the Dark Feature listed there as well.

Let me know if you have any trouble.

Regards,

Shannon