Moodle Clean-up Plugin

A comprehensive Moodle plugin that manages and optimizes file storage and the database by automatically identifying and removing unnecessary files and records.

Key Features

• UI to find and remove large files
• Automatic removal of orphaned files (files not associated with any Moodle entity, configurable)
• Automatic removal of old submissions and backups (configurable)
• Automatic grades history clean-up (configurable)
• Automatic logs clean-up (configurable)

Requirements

• Moodle 4.1.x or newer (compatibility with newer versions not fully tested)

Installation and Usage

1. Install the plugin by copying all files to the /local/cleanup directory in your Moodle installation
2. Run the Moodle upgrade process
3. Ensure correct plugin settings: auto-remove, logs and files lifetime
4. Access the plugin pages through:
   • Administration → Clean-up → Files - to review and manage uploaded files
   • Administration → Clean-up → Unlinked files - to identify and manage orphaned files

Cron Tasks

The automatic clean-up functionality relies on properly configured Moodle cron tasks. Ensure your crontab includes:

* * * * * /usr/bin/run-one /usr/bin/php $MOODLE_DIR/admin/cli/cron.php --execute

Important

For large databases, it is strongly recommended to run the cleanup during off-peak hours as dedicated cron jobs. When using this approach, make sure to disable the corresponding tasks in the Moodle scheduled tasks (admin panel).

Manual Start

# To scan the file directory for orphaned files (no removal)
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php --execute="local_cleanup\task\scan"
# To execute database and files clean-up
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php --execute="local_cleanup\task\cleanup"

Recommended Moodle Built-in Maintenance Tasks

For optimal system maintenance, consider running these built-in Moodle tasks:

# Look for more clean-up tasks in the cron configuration
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php --execute="core\task\context_cleanup_task"
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php --execute="core\task\file_temp_cleanup_task"
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php --execute="core\task\file_trash_cleanup_task"
# To fix other database issues
php admin/cli/fix_course_sequence.php
php admin/cli/fix_deleted_users.php
php admin/cli/fix_orphaned_calendar_events.php
php admin/cli/fix_orphaned_question_categories.php
php admin/cli/check_database_schema.php

Course Module Clean-up

If you encounter issues with course modules stuck in "deletion in progress" state, this may be related to missing or corrupted removal tasks.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have properly configured the adhoc task cron job:

* * * * * /usr/bin/run-one /usr/bin/php $MOODLE_DIR/admin/cli/adhoc_task.php --execute

Manual fix

Run the following script to reinitialize the clean-up process:

php $MOODLE_DIR/local/cleanup/cli/reinit_modules_cleanup.php

This script removes existing removal tasks and creates new ones for each course module marked for deletion.