Question

I need to be able to delete files from S3 that are stored by users, such as profile photos. Just calling @user.logo.destroy doesn’t seem to do the trick – I get [paperclip] Saving attachments. in the logs and the file stays right there in the S3 bucket.

How can the file itself be removed?

Answer 1

This are the methods from Paperclip that can be used to remove the attachments:

# Clears out the attachment. Has the same effect as previously assigning
# nil to the attachment. Does NOT save. If you wish to clear AND save,
# use #destroy.
def clear(*styles_to_clear)
  if styles_to_clear.any?
    queue_some_for_delete(*styles_to_clear)
  else
    queue_all_for_delete
    @queued_for_write  = {}
    @errors            = {}
  end
end

# Destroys the attachment. Has the same effect as previously assigning
# nil to the attachment *and saving*. This is permanent. If you wish to
# wipe out the existing attachment but not save, use #clear.
def destroy
  clear
  save
end

So you see, destroy only removes the attachment if no error occurs. I have tried it with my own setup against S3 so I know that destroy works.

Could the problem in your case possible be that you have any validations that cancels the save? I.e validates_attachment_presence or something similar?

I think one way to find out would be to try @user.logo.destroy and then check the content of @user.errors to see if it reports any error messages.