# Tag Browse Tree - How to Remove Old Tags From Historical Tree **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81\ **Created:** [July 20, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104 "2022-07-20T07:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BryanB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@BryanB](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/BryanB)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/1 "2022-07-20T07:05:16Z")
[v8.1.18] I accidentally enabled the tag historian on a few tags in my project. I’ve since corrected this and disabled historian on them. However, they still show up in my historical tag browse tree and I’d like them gone! In the past I’ve accomplished this by deleting all the sqlt… tables in the database and restarting the historian module. I’d like to do this more surgical this time. If I could just filter them out of the tag browse tree that would work as well (though some are sole contents of folders that also shouldn’t be visible). I don’t care about the data that was historized accidentally - it can either be deleted or left to rot in the stlt\_data\_… tables until it gets pruned (there isn’t that many rows). Most of these tags already have a timestamp in their “retired” colum (sqlth\_te table) and I need to disable the historian from the remainder that aren’t retired yet. I’ve tried deleting the rows from the sqlt\_data\_… tables , deleting their row from sqlth\_te, and restarting the historian module. This didn’t seem to work. What is the correct way to do this? * * * EDIT: I used (I’m using PostgreSQL): ```auto delete FROM sqlt_data_1_2022_07 where tagid in (SELECT id FROM sqlth_te where retired is not null) ``` ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 8:24am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/2 "2022-07-20T08:24:41Z")
> [@BryanB](#): > > I’ve tried deleting the rows from the sqlt\_data\_… tables , deleting their row from sqlth\_te, and restarting the historian module. This didn’t seem to work. This should be sufficient I think. I often clean things up with something along the lines of ```sql delete from sqlt_data_X_XXXX_XX inner join sqlth_te where tagid = id and retired is not null ``` then ```sql `delete from sqlth_te where retired is not null` ``` ---
**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 8:28am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/3 "2022-07-20T08:28:24Z")
I was thinking the same thing, Pascal, but the sqlth\_te table doesn’t tell you if the tag has history enabled or not. That’s stored somewhere in the tag database. Your SQL code will delete history where the tags have been retired but OP’s tags are still active. It’s only history has been disabled. While we’re on the topic - does anyone know what the “th\_te” in the table name means? ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/4 "2022-07-20T08:37:15Z")
Right. Still, it’s the same concept he tried, and it usually works for me. Deleting entries in the historian tables should be sufficient to clean things up. ‘tag historian’ and ‘table entry’ ? ---
**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 9:34am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/5 "2022-07-20T09:34:05Z")
> [@pascal.fragnoud](#): > > ‘tag historian’ and ‘table entry’ ? Nah, the table has nothing to do with history! ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 10:01am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/6 "2022-07-20T10:01:52Z")
Well it’s listed in the tag history tables: [https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/Ignition+Auto-Generated+SQL+Tables#IgnitionAutoGeneratedSQLTables-TagHistory](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/Ignition+Auto-Generated+SQL+Tables#IgnitionAutoGeneratedSQLTables-TagHistory) ---
**Author:** ![BryanB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@BryanB](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/BryanB)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/7 "2022-07-20T13:04:22Z")
Maybe the better question is where does the tag browse tree decide what tags should be shown in historical mode? From the sqltxxx tables or somewhere else? ---
**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/8 "2022-07-20T16:47:33Z")
When a Tag History is enabled an entry is made in the sqlth\_te table, when the History is disabled the tag is marked as “retired” (this also occurs if the tag name is changed, so anything that results in a new tag path). The Tag Browse Tree pulls all records from this table, it doesn’t differentiate between retired and non-retired tags. The only way (that I have found) to get the tags to not show up in the component is to remove the record from `sqlth_te`. You should also remove all of those records from the actual partition tables as well, although strictly not required its just good practice. ---
**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/9 "2022-07-20T16:48:42Z")
> [@Transistor](#): > > Nah, the table has nothing to do with history! As far as I can tell, the table only exists as part of the Tag Historian. Tags that have never had history enabled will not be included in the table. ---
**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/10 "2022-07-20T16:54:39Z")
Ah! That makes sense then. @pascal.fragnoud is correct. Thank you both. ---
**Author:** ![BryanB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@BryanB](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/BryanB)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 4:29am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/11 "2022-07-21T04:29:43Z")
It looks like the earlier deletions worked, I just hadn’t turned off tag history on the tags like I thought I did. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 4:25am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/tag-browse-tree-how-to-remove-old-tags-from-historical-tree/62104/12 "2024-10-18T04:25:13Z")
Having the same kind of issue with MSSQL tables but removing the `NOT NULLS` from the `sqlt_data` tables and the `sqlth_te` table did not get rid of them. Many were found before deleting them but others are stuck as their `retired` value is `NULL`. ```python DELETE d FROM sqlt_data_1_2024_10 AS d INNER JOIN sqlth_te AS t ON d.tagid = t.id WHERE t.retired IS NOT NULL; ------- delete from sqlth_te where retired is not null ``` If the ones that should not be there all have NULL in the retired column how can you find and delete them all? I can manually see that there should not be a `DataHall210` folder and (I think) use the delete query from above changing `WHERE` clause but there may be more or a might delete the wrong ones. `WHERE tagpath LIKE 'PHX/Phase2/Electrical/CP700/DataHall210%';` I've done the `NOT NULL` stuff before but not sure why these did not get marked `retired`. Somehow `system.tag.queryTagHistory` is finding some of them with a value of 0 no mater the date rage.