Deleting an attachment does not delete the document in the repository

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HI @VonRafaelR16606415

Few questions from my end

  1. What is the version of Pega you are using ?
  2. Is the storage defaulted to Pega DB or an external repository ?

For the error you are encountering you can refer to the below PDN Docs article

Below is the same error mentioned in the documentation.

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Attachment Upload Behavior in Pega Constellation

1. POST /attachments/upload

When an attachment is uploaded using the POST /attachments/upload API (for example, during case creation in a form), Pega first creates a temporary attachment instance.

  • The API returns a unique attachment ID to the client.
  • At this stage, the attachment is stored as an instance of Data-WorkAttach-File-Temp in the pegadata.pc_data_file_temp table.
  • This temporary attachment does not yet have a Link-Attachment relationship with a case, so it is effectively an orphan attachment until the case is created or updated.

This behavior is independent of the configured attachment storage option:

  • Database storage – the file content is stored in the Pega database.
  • Repository storage – the file content is stored in the configured external repository.

In both scenarios, a temporary attachment record is created first.

If the user cancels the operation (for example, cancels case creation, delete action):

  • The temporary attachment remains in the temp table.
  • Pega automatically cleans up the temporary attachment after ~2 hours (Did not verify this but hope it works that way)
  • If the storage option is repository, the file is also removed from the repository during the same cleanup process. There were some fixes done in v25.1.2 patch regarding this cleanup which i have to check more in detail.

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2. POST /api/v1/cases – Case Creation or Save

When the case creation API (POST /api/v1/cases) is invoked:

  • The temporary attachment ID returned from the upload API is passed to Pega.
  • Pega links the attachment to the case during case creation or save.
  • Once the case transaction is committed, the following happens:
    • The record in pegadata.pc_data_file_temp is deleted.
    • A permanent attachment instance of class Data-WorkAttach-File is created in the pegadata.pc_data_workattach table.

Again, this occurs regardless of the storage option configured:

  • Database storage → file content stored in the Pega database.

  • Repository storage → the attachment metadata is stored in Pega, while the actual file content is stored in the external repository.

Hope this helps

Regards

JC