Deleting Submissions

Spam entries, test submissions, and data you no longer need can be removed from the Submissions list. Convert Forms uses a two-step process: you trash submissions first, which is reversible, then empty the trash to delete them for good.

Trashing submissions

1. Log into your Joomla backend.
2. Go to Components → Convert Forms → Submissions.
3. Tick the checkbox next to each submission you want to remove. To select everything on the page, use the checkbox in the column header.
4. Click the Change Status button in the toolbar and choose Trash.

Trashed submissions disappear from the default view but aren't gone yet. You can still recover them.

Recovering a trashed submission

1. Set the Status filter to Trashed to see your trashed submissions.
2. Select the ones you want back.
3. Use Change Status to set them to Published or Unpublished again.

Deleting permanently

To remove trashed submissions for good:

1. Set the Status filter to Trashed.
2. Tick the submissions you want to delete (or select all).
3. Click Empty Trash in the toolbar and confirm.

This step is permanent. Once you empty the trash, those submissions can't be recovered.

Deleting submissions directly from the database

For bulk cleanups, you can remove submissions straight from the database with an SQL query. This is faster than trashing rows by hand when you need to clear thousands of submissions at once. Back up your database before running any query, and replace the #__ prefix with your own table prefix.

How to delete the submissions of a specific form

To delete every submission belonging to a particular form, run the following query and replace FORM_ID with your form's ID:

DELETE c, m
FROM `#__convertforms_conversions` AS c
LEFT JOIN `#__convertforms_submission_meta` AS m
  ON m.submission_id = c.id
WHERE c.form_id = FORM_ID;

How to reset the submissions counter

To wipe all submissions and reset the auto-increment counter back to 1, run:

TRUNCATE `#__convertforms_conversions`;
ALTER TABLE `#__convertforms_conversions` AUTO_INCREMENT = 1;
TRUNCATE `#__convertforms_submission_meta`;
ALTER TABLE `#__convertforms_submission_meta` AUTO_INCREMENT = 1;

Deleting submissions automatically

If you want old submissions cleared on a schedule instead of by hand, Convert Forms can do it for you. See Automatically Delete Submissions Older Than X Days.