Flexible Defaults for Account Cleanup
Thursday, October 8, 2026
What it is
The account Cleanup tool now allows removal of many of the default guardrails in your custom cleanup policy. Cleanup can now be configured to delete in-use or published assets based on your custom filters. You can also select new date and time properties for the lookback window, so assets can be deleted automatically based on fields like create date, publish date, or last activity date, rather than just last modified or updated date. When you configure a cleanup policy for an asset or record type, you now see dropdowns to change the lookback properties and the default filters. You modify them like any segment filter, then save. Private beta, Enterprise only, last updated October 6, 2026. On the VFT portal the panel read "Everyone in your account is taking part in this private beta."
Why it matters
Account cleanup is designed to let you manage your own asset deletion policy, but until now the feature included strict guardrails so you would not accidentally delete assets your account might need. HubSpot says that over the last few months it added options to help admins fix mistakes quickly if something goes wrong, such as a full revert of a cleanup job. With those in place, it is giving admins more tools to make cleanup more powerful, so it can do more work on your behalf.
The Take
When account cleanup first came out, it was so rigid that for most of my clients it did not make sense. More filter options change that, because a policy you can actually shape to your portal is one worth opening. On the show I said I have mostly used it in an audit sense rather than as automation, and that is still how I would start. Run it to see what is in there before you let it delete anything.
The audit view is the part I would hand to anyone who just inherited a portal. It shows how many draft or unpublished landing pages are sitting there creating noise, and that alone makes it a good first-week look when a portal becomes yours. It will probably come up in our inheriting-portals series for that reason. I do have a couple of older portals where I know a lot of stuff is lingering, and I would like to use it more. But you cannot delete assets willy-nilly. Letting cleanup delete in-use or published assets is a bigger permission than it sounds, and the lookback date you choose (create, publish or last activity instead of last modified) decides what counts as stale. Treat that as a decision to make with the people who own the assets, not a default to accept. HubSpot's panel points to the revert option for cleanup jobs as the safety net, and that is the reason I would trust this at all.
Who should act: Enterprise admins, especially anyone who just inherited a portal or runs an older one, should start with the audit view and see what the new lookback options surface. Because this is a private beta, check your own portal before planning around it. Who can skip it: anyone below Enterprise, and any admin who is not ready to own a deletion policy yet.
Watch Us Discuss This
The full segment from the show, us working through this update start to finish.
FAQ
Who can use the new account cleanup options?
Enterprise only, and it is currently a private beta. On the VFT portal the panel showed everyone in the account taking part in the beta, so check your own portal before you plan around it.
Can I undo a cleanup if I get the filters wrong?
HubSpot's panel says that over the last few months it added options to help admins fix mistakes, such as a full revert of a cleanup job. Confirm in your portal how revert works for the policy you configure before you turn on deletion.
Produced by Value-First Media