Content item purging

• US 10,503,711 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2016
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Dwan, Michael, Grue, Anthony, Kluesing, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang, Thanh-Ha
• Application Number:
  US15/261,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378797A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 707692
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/162 Delete operations erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for content item purging are provided. A content item purger, such as may be incorporated within a local client application of a content management system running on a user device, may leverage knowledge as to which items have been uploaded to the content management system, and how long such content items have been stored on the user device, to propose items for deletion from the user device so as to reclaim storage space. A content item purger may run on one or more user devices, and may activate upon various triggering events, based on various conditions and parameters, with or without user interaction, thus maintaining available memory capacity at all times.

Claims

1. A method of reclaiming storage space on an electronic device, comprising:

detecting a triggering event for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device;

in response to detecting the triggering event, identifying a content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device;

wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that the content item is previously synchronized with a remote data store and is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store;

wherein determining that the content item is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store is based on determining that there are no changes to the content item queued at the electronic device for later synchronization with the remote data store;

based at least in part on the identifying the content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device, reclaiming storage space on the electronic device by replacing the content item entirely stored on the electronic device with a smaller sized version of the content item that is entirely stored on the electronic device;

wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is either;

(a) a truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device, or (b) a downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device; and

wherein the method is performed by one or more processors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (b) the downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content item is associated with a user account of a content management service held by a user of the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that the content item is stored on the electronic device for a defined time period, wherein the defined time period is one of:

fixed, set as a default but modifiable by a user, or dynamically set as a function of a data storage capacity of the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that an amount of storage space occupied by the content item on the electronic device exceeds a threshold amount.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering event corresponds to at least one of:

a periodically scheduled purge, a user request, or a receipt of an additional content item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that a battery charge of a battery of the electronic device exceeds a battery charge threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the replacing, keeping a same version of the content item stored on the remote data store.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (a) the truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

detecting a triggering event for reclaiming storage space on an electronic device;

in response to detecting the triggering event, identifying a content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device;

wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that the content item is previously synchronized with a remote data store and is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store;

wherein determining that the content item is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store is based on determining that there are no changes to the content item queued at the electronic device for later synchronization to a content management system;

based at least in part on the identifying the content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device, reclaiming storage space on the electronic device by replacing the content item entirely stored on the electronic device with a smaller sized version of the content item that is entirely stored on the electronic device;

wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is either;

(a) a truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device, or (b) a downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (b) the downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the one or more programs comprise further instructions for, after the replacing, keeping a same version of the content item stored on the remote data store since.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (a) the truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

12. An electronic device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more storage media storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for;

detecting a triggering event for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device;

in response to detecting the triggering event, identifying a content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device;

wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that the content item is previously synchronized with a remote data store and is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store;

wherein determining that the content item is not modified at the electronic device since the content item is previously synchronized with the remote data store is based on determining that there are no changes to the content item queued at the electronic device for later synchronization to a content management system;

based at least in part on the identifying the content item entirely stored on the electronic device that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device, reclaiming storage space on the electronic device by replacing the content item entirely stored on the electronic device with a smaller sized version of the content item that is entirely stored on the electronic device;

wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is either;

(a) a truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device, or (b) a downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

13. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (b) the downsampled version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.

14. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the content item is associated with a user account of a content management service held by a user of the electronic device.

15. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that the content item is stored on the electronic device for a defined time period, wherein the defined time period is one of:

fixed, set as a default but modifiable by a user, or dynamically set as a function of a data storage capacity of the electronic device.

16. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that an amount of storage space occupied by the content item on the electronic device exceeds a threshold amount.

17. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the triggering event corresponds to at least one of:

a periodically scheduled purge, a user request, or a receipt of an additional content item.

18. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the identifying the content item that qualifies for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device is based on determining that a battery charge of a battery of the electronic device exceeds a battery charge threshold.

19. The electronic device of claim 12, further comprising, after the replacing, keeping a same version of the content item stored on the remote data store.

22. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the smaller sized version of the content item is (a) the truncated version of the content item entirely stored on the electronic device.