Delete Marketo programs

[dheerajpatil]

Hello,

Can someone help me understand why we are not able to delete programs in Marketo.

The case is there are certain default programs and email send programs that we need to delete. Some of the programs are getting deleted but others are not.

Primarily, I have taken care of and deleted all the assets (smart lists, campaigns) to make sure these are not shared with other campaigns within the same workspace or other workspaces.

Could there be any reason why I am not able to delete these programs?

Appreciate your help. Thank you! 

[SanfordWhiteman]

Are you certain there are no external Smart Lists or Reports referencing the Programs?

[uditmathur]

Hi @dheerajpatil ,

As  suggested by @SanfordWhiteman check if your program have assets that are being used in other programs.

When deleting a program which have assets used by other systems you will get "Can not delete error" in this window you will be able to all the assets being used elsewhere, now you will have to drill down to each asset & either un-approve /delete these assets before you can delete the program.

You can get more details here.

Best as a best practice it is always recommended to Archive a program rather than completely deleting. By archiving you can still have access to all the reporting & the same program will not be visible in your active folder.

Hope this helps. 😊 

[Neha8]

Hi @dheerajpatil,

Before deleting any Marketo Program, please check every asset of the program that might be used in any programs this is the issue of not getting deleted, the best practice always says that instead of deleting any program it is good to archive well it keeps the program data. 

Deleting a program without this comprehensive review can lead to unintended disruptions or breaks in your marketing automations. By archiving the program instead, you can preserve the data and program structure, while also ensuring there are no residual dependencies that could cause issues down the line.

Deleting a program will also remove all historical data associated with it, including analytics and member data. 🙂

Thanks!

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Let’s not be too general about what’s a “best practice” wrt deleting programs. There are several situations in which deleting (not archiving) is perfectly fine, even mandatory.

For one example, if you wish to bind the same webinar ID to a new program, you must delete the first program.

For another, if you want to clean up a large amount of old email assets to not have your instance grow infinitely, you must remove any Email program ref’ing those assets.

For yet another, if you use an integration that lets an end user choose from a list of programs without checking if they’re enclosed in an Archive folder (a common shortcoming) you must delete the program.

[Neha8]

Agreed with your answer too.

[NiharikaGoyal]

Hi @dheerajpatil 

Hope you are doing well!!

Most of the answers completely address your questions.

But it would be great if you can share the screenshot of error that you are facing so that we can able to know what exactly issue you are facing to delete the programs.

Thanks!!

[dheerajpatil]

Thank you @SanfordWhiteman @uditmathur @Neha8 @NiharikaGoyal for your inputs. Really appreciate it.

To answer your queries, yes I have checked the assets and there are no assets being shared with other campaigns.

Also, I do not get any error when I click delete, it just buffers but does not get deleted.

Hence the concern!

Another couple of suggestions I received from another members:

1. One was to check if the assets are being shared with programs in another workspace, but while deleting Marketo doesnot tell me if this is being used by another program in different workspace. Any suggestions here on where I can find this?

2. Currently I am checking and will delete the lists in database, and then maybe will try deleting the programs.

[Neha8]

Hi @dheerajpatil 

Can you please share the screenshot of the error you are facing?

Thanks!

[dheerajpatil]

Hi @Neha8 

Marketo doesnot display any error. It just buffers and goes back to the folder link where the program resides but the program stays intact.

Thank you!