Temp files taking up too much space

Hello guys,

I recently noticed there are these temp files in the engine folder that took up most of my space. There are 277 of them and each of them is exactly 1 GB. I tried to reboot my computer and they won't go away. I also tried to google the file name e2temp but can't find anything. I thought once workflows finish running, temp files will be deleted automatically. Can I delete these files?

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Engine

Accepted answers

Kurohits

Hi @hyh

Yes you can delete temp files which are not automatically deleted through system settings.

The lifespan of individual temp files differs, but in most cases, they are deleted as soon as that tool is done outputting all its records to downstream tools.
Some temp files will not clear out until after the workflow is closed, such as temp files for Browse Data (*.yxdb files) and Browse Map (*.png files.)
Orphaned” files (temp files remaining after a crash as in the case where temp space runs out) are automatically cleared out the next time the Alteryx Engine runs.

Let me know if you need any further help.

Thanks

Rohit Gupta

hyh

@TonyaS

I have found that these temp files are generated by a specific workflow that takes a long time to run. Because we didn't have enough space, the workflow couldn't complete and create these orphan files. We tested deleting them and that workflow works just fine. Thank you all for the help!

All comments

Qiu

@hyh
Maybe you have turned on the System Override for temp folder?
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Temp-Files/td-p/461988

hyh

Hi Qiu,

I have not. Do we have any use for these files? Is it ok to delete them?

Kurohits

Hi @hyh

Yes you can delete temp files which are not automatically deleted through system settings.

The lifespan of individual temp files differs, but in most cases, they are deleted as soon as that tool is done outputting all its records to downstream tools.
Some temp files will not clear out until after the workflow is closed, such as temp files for Browse Data (*.yxdb files) and Browse Map (*.png files.)
Orphaned” files (temp files remaining after a crash as in the case where temp space runs out) are automatically cleared out the next time the Alteryx Engine runs.

Let me know if you need any further help.

Thanks

Rohit Gupta

Tonya_Smith

@hyh

What version are you on?

hyh

Version: 2021.3.4.00445

Tonya_Smith

Thank you, we are looking into this and researching a possible solution for a future release. I will update when we know more.

Did you notice if you got a message in Designer about compact packets? We think that is what causes those files to get generated.

hyh

@TonyaS

I didn't remember, when the workflow ran for three hours, I checked our space and there are only 1 GB left. It's still running, so I immediately stopped it and checked the engine folder. 400+ same temp files were there and rebooting didn't make them go away. Deleting them freed up space and didn't cause any issues.

Tonya_Smith

We did add this to our Roadmap for consideration on an upcoming 2023 Release. This should be limited to when Engine actually crashes because it ran out of memory and it is fine to go ahead and delete the files if you do not have Designer running. We will look to add a failsafe to look for these orphan files and clean them up if they exist.

harsh_alang

This improvement is available in 23.1 Preview 3 for users to try out. GA will be version 23.1.

nbondarchuk

I’m happy to announce that the fix has been released in the 2023.1 GA Release version May 17, 2023, which is available for download from our licensing portal

Eli_B

I'm on 2022.3 and I'm still seeing this issue. My log files were taking up 250GBs of space, this was after a restart & without Alteryx running. Why is Alteryx keeping these files, I thought everything should be discarded after closing Alteryx?

CristianoJ

For the problem with the e2temp files there is defect GENG-3270 / GENG-3273, which was fixed and released on versions 2023.1 Patch 4 and 2023.2 Patch 1. If you are not ready to upgrade yet then the workaround would be to disable AMP engine on the workflow producing those files by unchecking the Use AMP Engine flag in the workflow configuration. It is ok to manually delete those files, at least all the ones that do not have a current creation date.

You can refer to release notes on this link: https://help.alteryx.com/current/en/release-notes/designer-release-notes/designer-2023-1-release-notes.html#designer-2023-1-release-notes

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