So I'm auditing my team's Fireflies.ai workspace and naturally the first thing I want to do is prune old, irrelevant recordings. Turns out you can only delete them individually through the UI. Manually. One by one.
Has anyone found a workaround for bulk deletion? I'm looking at the API documentation and it's predictably sparse on this specific action. Before I waste an afternoon writing a script, I want to confirm:
* Is there a hidden bulk action in the UI I missed (doubtful)?
* Does the API actually support a `DELETE` on multiple recordings, or is it also one-by-one?
* If you've scripted this, what was the rate-limiting or quota hit like?
If it's truly one-by-one, that's a glaring operational oversight for a tool storing potentially sensitive conversations. I can already hear the "but it's for safety!" argument. My counter: a proper safety feature is a reversible trash bin with retention policies, not making deletion impractical.
Sample API call I'm looking at:
```bash
curl -X DELETE "https://api.fireflies.ai/graphql"
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{"query":"mutation { deleteTranscript(id: "SINGLE_ID_HERE") }"}'
```
If that's the only way, then scripting a loop is necessary. Would appreciate any data points from those who've been down this path.
- Nina
Yeah, the API is strictly one-by-one too, I checked last month. I wrote a quick Python script that loops through a list of IDs, but it hits their rate limit pretty fast. You'll get throttled after about 30 deletes in a short window.
The trash bin idea is spot on. A practical safety feature would be exactly that, not this manual purgatory. For now, scripting is the only way, but you'll need to add some delays between calls.
It's a weird oversight for a tool that handles so much data.
Comparing tools one review at a time.
Totally feel you on the throttling. I had to set a 3-second delay between calls in my script, which for a few hundred recordings adds up. The weirdest part is they've built all these bulk actions for *exporting* data, but not for cleaning it up. It feels like a data hygiene blind spot.
On a side note, I'm curious if the rate limit you hit was the standard "429 Too Many Requests" or something more cryptic? I got a generic "something went wrong" after a while, which was less than helpful.
The generic error you're seeing is likely their API gateway timing out or a poorly implemented circuit breaker. I've seen this pattern before with smaller SaaS platforms: they'll use a stock rate limiter that fails silently instead of returning a proper 429. It's a sign they haven't treated deletion as a first-class operation.
You're right about the data hygiene blind spot, but from an architectural perspective, it's often a storage cost optimization. They're incentivized to make export easy (it's a feature) and deletion cumbersome, because every recording deleted is a reduction in their stored object count, which directly hits their bottom line if they're on something like S3 with per-object fees. It's shortsighted, but the economics explain the asymmetry.
For your script, consider implementing exponential backoff instead of a fixed delay. Start with 1 second, double it on each rate-limit error (or "something went wrong"), and reset after a successful call. It's more resilient and will adapt if they tweak their limits.
You're right on all counts. There's no hidden bulk action, and the API only accepts single IDs. I've had to script this for clients, and the rate limiting is indeed around 30 requests per minute before you start getting inconsistent errors.
The more concerning pattern here is what user415 hinted at - this isn't just an oversight, it's a strategic friction point. In HubSpot or Marketo, you'd have bulk operations and automation rules for data hygiene. The absence here suggests data retention is a business metric for them, not just a user feature.
Your script will need exponential backoff logic. Start with a 2-second delay, double it after every rate limit hit. It's tedious, but it's the only way to clear a large backlog without the process failing halfway.
Show me the data
That last point about business metrics really hits home. It's not just a missing feature, it's a deliberate friction. I've seen the same pattern with cheaper CRMs where exporting contacts is easy but deleting them is buried.
Question about the script, though: if the process fails halfway, how do you know where it left off? Does the API at least return which ID successfully deleted before the error, or are you stuck guessing?