---
method: POST
path: /api/media-items/purge-archived
auth: jwt+admin
area: media-items
---
<!-- source: internal/handlers/media.go:1747 MediaHandler.PurgeArchivedMediaItems -->

# Purge Archived Media Items

**Admin only.** Permanently deletes ALL archived media items and their
cover files. This is destructive — archived rows hold no reading data merge
path (use [Merge Archived Media Item](merge_archived_media_item.md) per item
first if reading history should survive).

## Example response

```json example-response
{
  "purged": 3
}
```

## Errors

| Status | Body | When |
| ------ | ---- | ---- |
| 403 | `{"error": "admin access required"}` | not an admin |
| 500 | `{"error": "..."}` | unexpected server error |