Remove Duplicate Attachments

Safely identify and remove duplicate attachments that accumulate from
email signatures and repeated vendor/customer correspondence.

✅ Safe & Auditable 👁 Review Before Delete 💾 Recover Storage

⚠ The Problem

When customers and vendors reply to Odoo-generated emails, their email signatures often contain images that get automatically attached to your Purchase Orders, Sale Orders, and Invoices through Odoo's chatter system.

Multiple back-and-forth emails on a single record can result in the same signature image being attached 3-10+ times. Across thousands of records, this leads to:

• Significant storage bloat — Gigabytes of redundant data
• Slower record loading — More attachments = slower performance
• Cluttered attachment lists — Hard to find important documents
• Increased backup sizes — Longer backup times and storage costs

ⓘ Description

Attachment Duplicate Cleanup is a safety-first module designed to help Odoo administrators identify and remove duplicate attachments without risking important data. Unlike simple deletion scripts, this module provides a complete workflow with analysis, review, and audit capabilities.

The module uses checksum-based detection to find byte-for-byte identical files across your Purchase Orders, Sale Orders, and Invoices. You review the duplicates, select which copy to keep, and only then perform the cleanup — with full logging of every action taken.

⚙ How It Works

A safe, three-phase workflow ensures you never accidentally delete important data:

🔧 Configuration

Analysis Settings

When creating a new analysis, you can configure the following options:

Protected Attachments

The following attachment types are automatically protected and will never be deleted:

• Attachments with res_field set (binary field storage like product images)
• Product template and variant images
• Partner/contact photos
• Company logos
• Employee photos

Cron Job (Optional)

A weekly scheduled action is included but disabled by default. When enabled, it:

• Runs analysis automatically
• Auto-selects the oldest attachment as the "keeper"
• Does NOT auto-delete — cleanup always requires manual confirmation

Location: Settings → Technical → Scheduled Actions → "Attachment Duplicate Analysis (Weekly)"

📖 Usage

Step 1: Create an Analysis

1. Navigate to Settings → Attachment Cleanup → New Analysis
2. Configure your analysis settings (or use defaults)
3. Click "Run Analysis"
4. Wait for the analysis to complete (progress is logged)

Step 2: Review Results

After analysis completes, you'll see summary statistics:

Click "Review Duplicates" to examine each duplicate group:

• Image Preview — See exactly what the duplicate looks like
• Attachment List — View all copies with their linked records
• Select Keeper — Choose which copy to preserve (defaults to oldest)
• Ready to Delete — Mark the group for cleanup
• Will be Ignored — Skip this group entirely

Step 3: Perform Cleanup

1. Return to the Analysis form
2. Click "Delete Ready Groups"
3. Confirm the action in the dialog
4. Review the cleanup log for details

📁 Menu Structure

All features are accessible under Settings → Attachment Cleanup:

Attachment Duplicate Cleanup is developed and maintained by Alpenglow Technologies LLC.

Disclaimer: This module performs permanent deletions of attachment records. While extensive safety measures are built in, Alpenglow Technologies LLC is not responsible for any data loss resulting from use of this module. Users are strongly advised to maintain regular backups and test on staging environments before production use.

This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Always verify cleanup results meet your expectations before proceeding with large-scale operations.