Status of files after user deletion

TLDR - Quick Summary

What: Files remain in Cloud Storage after SFTP user or Folder deletion

Reason: SFTP Gateway avoids data loss by not auto-deleting bucket objects

Cleanup: Manually delete files via GCP console or SFTP client with write access

Note: Folder mappings are just mount points; deleting them does not delete files

When an SFTP user is deleted from the web admin portal, the SFTP user's files will still exist in Cloud Storage.

SFTP Gateway does not delete nor move (i.e. tombstone) the Cloud Storage path of the SFTP user's chroot directory. This is because SFTP Gateway leans heavily toward avoiding data loss situations.

If you need to clean up bucket objects after deleting the SFTP user, this needs to be done manually.

Also, bucket objects are not impacted when deleting a Folder from the web admin portal. Folders are just mappings or mount points. So if the SFTP Gateway Folder mapping is deleted, the underlying bucket objects will still remain.

In general, actions in the web admin portal do not delete files in Cloud Storage. File deletion in bucket occurs manually -- via the Google Cloud portal, or via an SFTP client like FileZilla where the SFTP user has read/write access.