Delete a Realm File - Swift SDK

In some cases, you may want to completely delete a realm file from disk.

Realm avoids copying data into memory except when absolutely required. As a result, all objects managed by a realm have references to the file on disk. Before you can safely delete the file, you must ensure the deallocation of these objects:

• All objects read from or added to the realm
• All List and Results objects
• All ThreadSafeReference objects
• The realm itself

Warning: If you delete a realm file or any of its auxiliary files while one or more instances of the realm are open, you might corrupt the realm or disrupt sync.

Delete a Realm File to Avoid Migration

If you iterate rapidly as you develop your app, you may want to delete a realm file instead of migrating it when you make schema changes. The Realm configuration provides a deleteRealmIfMigrationNeeded parameter to help with this case.

When you set this property to true, the SDK deletes the realm file when a migration would be required. Then, you can create objects that match the new schema instead of writing migration blocks for development or test data.

do {
    // Delete the realm if a migration would be required, instead of migrating it.
    // While it's useful during development, do not leave this set to `true` in a production app!
    let configuration = Realm.Configuration(deleteRealmIfMigrationNeeded: true)
    let realm = try Realm(configuration: configuration)
} catch {
    print("Error opening realm: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}

Delete a Realm File

In practice, there are two safe times to delete the realm file:

1. On application startup before ever opening the realm.
2. After only having opened the realm within an explicit autorelease pool, which ensures deallocation of all of objects within it.