Deleting Data & Privacy
Deleting records, recovering them from the Recycle Bin, and handling data-rights requests from the people in your CRM.
On this page:
Deleting records
Open the record, click the Actions menu, select Delete, read the warnings, and confirm. Files behave differently depending on whether they were uploaded to Insightly directly or linked from cloud storage.
Deleting an Opportunity in Insightly CRM
Confirming Opportunity Deletion in Insightly
Files are either uploaded to Insightly directly or attached to emails saved to Insightly. If you delete an email, its file attachments are deleted as well. To find and remove files on a record, open the record, click the Related tab, select Files, click the three-dot menu next to the file name, and choose Delete This File.
File Actions Dropdown Menu in Insightly
To delete files in bulk, go to the files list view, select the checkboxes next to each file you want to remove, and click the trashcan icon at the top left of the list. A confirmation message appears; click Delete File Attachments to finalize.
Delete File Attachments Confirmation Dialog
The Recycle Bin
Deleted records move to the Recycle Bin rather than disappearing, so accidental deletions can be recovered. The Recycle Bin link appears in the right sidebar when viewing a list of records, and there is only one Recycle Bin for your entire account.
Accessing the Recycle Bin in Contacts
Items deleted within the last 30 days can be restored or permanently deleted. Anything in the Recycle Bin for more than 30 days is permanently deleted and cannot be restored. Items in the Recycle Bin count toward your record and storage limits.
Most record types can be restored, including tasks, contacts, organizations, leads, opportunities, projects, emails, custom object records, reports, events, comments, files, notes, milestones, and quotes.
ℹ️ An item attached to another record cannot be restored on its own once its parent record has been deleted. Restore the parent record instead, which restores the related items with it. For example, if you delete a task that contains a comment, both move to the Recycle Bin, but restoring the task restores both.
To restore or permanently remove items, open a list view, click Recycle Bin in the right sidebar, and select the checkboxes next to the items you want. Insightly displays up to 50 items per page; use the “Select all…” link to select items across all pages. Click Restore Items or Delete Items. To empty the bin entirely, choose My Deleted Items or All Deleted Items and click Empty Recycle Bin. When you restore items, Insightly sends you an email once the process completes.
Recycle Bin My Deleted Items View
Recycle Bin All Deleted Items View
Selecting Items in the Recycle Bin
Selecting All Records in Recycle Bin
Deleted Items Restore or Delete Job in Progress
⚠️ Items deleted from the Recycle Bin cannot be recovered.
Honoring a data deletion request
If a contact asks you to delete the data you hold on them, such as under GDPR's right to erasure, search for them across every object they could appear in: contacts, leads, opportunities, projects, emails, notes, and any custom objects that might reference them. Delete each record individually using the same Delete action described above, since there's no single "erase this person everywhere" button. Check the Recycle Bin afterward too, since a deleted record isn't gone until it's removed from there as well.
Tracking opt-in choices
Regulations such as GDPR require proper authorization before sending business communications. A custom opt-in field lets you record each person’s stated preference against their record. Opt-in requirements are already built into marketing products like MailChimp, so this is familiar to most marketers, and it matters whether you use the MailChimp integration, import from other marketing applications, or send non-marketing emails directly from Insightly.
Several custom field types can capture opt-in choices. A checkbox field is the simplest approach: checked means opted in, which works well if you use a single outreach method. When you contact people in multiple ways, create a checkbox per method. A dropdown field can hold combinations such as Email, Phone, Email and Phone, None. A multi-select dropdown is another option, though it can allow invalid combinations like Email and None; set its default value to None or null. Adding an Opt-in Date field records when the choice was made, and you can update it automatically with workflow automation each time an opt-in field is selected.
Checkbox Field Linked to Contact Record
Multi-Select Dropdown Field Configuration in Insightly
With Insightly’s Web to Lead and Web to Contact forms, a visitor can opt in when submitting their information. Most custom field types can be included on a webform, though the multi-select field is not available for webforms.