How to delete a large number of Content Types from Content Type Gallery?

Question

We have a lot of InfoPath forms deployed on our SharePoint 2013 farm as custom Content Types. Over the period of time there are now a lot of such unused custom content types in gallery. When i say a lot of, i mean around 60-80 in count.

I have to delete these unused content types to make the environment cleaner. I know that i can go to content type gallery and start deleting individual content types. But, i don't want to repeat the steps 70-80 times. So, i am looking for some trick to do this quickly, if possible.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can delete the content type via Powershell. Please create the XML file with required Content Types you want to delete and give input for the below powershell script.

param(
    [string] $siteCollectionURL = $(Throw "-- You must specify the URL of a site collection as parameter 1."), #required parameter
 [string] $xmlFilePath = $(Throw "-- You must specify the pathname of an XML file as parameter 2.") #required parameter
)
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction "SilentlyContinue"
Write-host "RemoveContentTypesFromSiteCollection: Processing Site Colleciton: " $siteCollectionURL -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Black
$siteScope = Start-SPAssignment
$web = get-SPWeb $siteCollectionURL 
# get the content types XML from the input XML file
$XmlFileInput = [xml](Get-Content($xmlFilePath))

# loop over content types listed in the input XML file
foreach( $ctElement in $XmlFileInput.ContentTypes.ContentType) 
{
    $contentTypeToRemove = $ctElement.Name

    write-host "  Checking for Content Type " $contentTypeToRemove -ForegroundColor Gray

    $ct = $web.ContentTypes[$contentTypeToRemove]
    if ($ct)
    {
        write-host "    Found Content Type '" $contentTypeToRemove "' in site " $web -ForegroundColor Gray
        try
        { 
            if ($ct.Readonly -eq $true)
            {
                $ct.ReadOnly = $false
                $ct.Update()
            }           
            $ct.Delete()
            $web.Update()  # may not be necessary
            write-host "    Deleted Content Type '" $contentTypeToRemove "' from site " $web -ForegroundColor Black
        }
        Catch
        {
            Write-host "Exception :" $_.exception.message -ForegroundColor red
            Write-host "Web       :" $Web.url -ForegroundColor red
            Write-host "Cont Type :" $contentTypeToRemove -ForegroundColor red
        }
    }
}  
Write-host "RemoveContentTypesFromSiteCollection: Done"

Please verify and let me know if you have any queries on this.

Answer 2

There's no easy way to delete them while in use on a list, but if not, Powershell could be very useful.

$sitename = $args[0]
$contentType = $args[1]

$web = Get-SPWeb $sitename
$ct = $web.ContentTypes[$contentType]

if ($ct) {
$ctusage = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeUsage]::GetUsages($ct)
  foreach ($ctuse in $ctusage) {
    $list = $web.GetList($ctuse.Url)
    $contentTypeCollection = $list.ContentTypes;
    $contentTypeCollection.Delete($contentTypeCollection[$ContentType].Id);
    Write-host "Deleted $contentType content type from $ctuse.Url"
    }
$ct.Delete()
Write-host "Deleted $contentType from site."

} else { Write-host "Nothing to delete." }

$web.Dispose()

Here you could find a basic explanation