laravel-files/docs/artisan-commands.md

Artisan Commands

files:cleanup

Remove orphaned files — files that are not attached to any model.

php artisan files:cleanup

Options

Option	Default	Description
--days=N	30	Only delete orphans older than N days
--dry-run	—	Preview what would be deleted without actually deleting

Examples

# Preview orphaned files older than 30 days
php artisan files:cleanup --dry-run

# Delete orphaned files older than 7 days
php artisan files:cleanup --days=7

# Delete all orphans older than 90 days
php artisan files:cleanup --days=90

What Counts as Orphaned?

A file is orphaned when it has zero entries in the filables pivot table — meaning no model references it. This uses the File::orphaned() scope internally.

Scheduling

Add to your app/Console/Kernel.php (or routes/console.php in Laravel 11+):

Schedule::command('files:cleanup --days=30')->daily();

Safety

• Only files older than the --days threshold are eligible
• Each file's disk contents and resized variants are deleted along with the model
• Pivot entries (if any remained) are also cleaned up
• Use --dry-run first to verify the impact