Delete Protection

If your server has frozen for no obvious reason and only a hard reboot brought it back, and you run media servers or download apps, the cause may be a large-file delete. On a high-RAM server, deleting a very large file that is fully cached in memory can make the whole system lock up while it clears that memory — and the delete that triggers it is usually automated, not something you did by hand.

Delete Protection is the built-in safeguard that prevents this. It clears a large file’s cached memory in small, quick steps right before the delete, so no single operation is ever long enough to freeze the server. It is opt-in — off by default — and a server admin turns it on with the Delete Protection toggle in Settings > General > Feature Flags. It covers media servers (Emby, Jellyfin, Plex) and download apps (Radarr, Sonarr, SABnzbd, torrent clients, and more).

Full guide: managing Delete Protection

This page is a quick summary. For how it works, how to choose a threshold, and how to enable and manage it from the dashboard or the qb CLI, see the full guide: Delete Protection.

Who it’s for

This is for you if

You run media servers (Emby, Jellyfin, Plex) or download apps (Radarr, Sonarr, SABnzbd, torrent clients)
Your server has a large amount of RAM
You have seen unexplained whole-server freezes that only a hard reboot fixes
The freezes have no obvious cause and no clear entry in the application logs
You want to confirm protection is active or adjust which apps it covers

What you can do

Enable the Delete Protection toggle in Settings > General > Feature Flags to put the safeguard in place
See status and recent activity on the Delete Protection page once enabled
Adjust the size threshold that decides when protection engages
Turn protection off for a specific app if you ever need to
Watch the count of large deletes safely handled climb as it works