CONTENT ITEM PURGING

• US 20160378797A1
• Filed: 09/09/2016
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Klluesing, Daniel, Dwan, Michael, Grue, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 10,503,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 contact 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 contact 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:

determining that a content item stored on the electronic device is currently synchronized with a remote data store and is unmodified since a last synchronization with the remote data store;

based at least in part on the determining, reclaiming storage space on the electronic device by replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a smaller size version of the content item; and

wherein the method is performed by one or more processors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a downsampled version of the content item.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a truncated version of the content item.

4. 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.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises 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.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that an amount of storage space occupied by the content item on the electronic device exceeds a threshold amount.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that a triggering event for reclaiming storage space on the electronic device has occurred, the triggering event corresponding to at least one of:

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

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that a battery charge of a battery of the electronic device exceeds a battery charge threshold.

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

10. 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:

determining that a content item stored on an electronic device is currently synchronized with a remote data store and is unmodified since a last synchronization with the remote data store; and

based at least in part on the determining, reclaiming storage space on the electronic device by replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a smaller size version of the content item.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein instructions for the replacing comprises instructions for replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a downsampled version of the content item.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein instructions for the replacing comprises instructions for replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a truncated version of the content item.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10, 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 the last synchronization.

14. 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;

determining that a content item stored on the one or more storage media is currently synchronized with a remote data store and is unmodified since a last synchronization with the remote data store; and

based at least in part on the determining, reclaiming storage space on the one or more storage media by replacing the content item stored on the one or more storage media with a smaller size version of the content item.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a downsampled version of the content item.

16. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the content item stored on the electronic device with a truncated version of the content item.

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

18. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the determining further comprises determining that the content item is stored on the one or more storage media 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 one or more storage media.

19. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the determining comprises determining that an amount of storage space occupied by the content item on the one or more storage media exceeds a threshold amount.

20. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the determining comprises determining that a triggering event for reclaiming storage space on the one or more storage media has occurred, the triggering event corresponding to at least one of:

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

21. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the determining comprises determining that a battery charge of a battery of the electronic device exceeds a battery charge threshold.

22. The electronic device of claim 14, further comprising, after the replacing, keeping a same version of the content item stored on the remote data store since the last synchronization.