# 'Edit Observations \> Delete Selected' does not work as expected **URL:** \ **Category:** Bug Reports\ **Tags:** web\ **Created:** [May 6, 2024, 9:44am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174 "2024-05-06T09:44:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GeolTel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/geoltel/32/76853_2.png) [@GeolTel](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/GeolTel)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 9:44am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174/1 "2024-05-06T09:44:40Z")
**Platform** : Website **Browser** : Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 \*\*URLs: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/sqfp?utf8=✓&q=&search\_on=&quality\_grade=needs\_id&reviewed=&identifications=any&captive=&geoprivacy=&taxon\_geoprivacy=&place\_id=10574&swlat=&swlng=&nelat=&nelng=¬\_in\_place=&taxon\_name=Tracheophyta&taxon\_id=211194&day=&month=&year=&order\_by=observations.id&order=desc&rank=&hrank=&lrank=&taxon\_ids[]=&d1=&d2=&created\_on=&site=&tdate=&list\_id=&filters\_open=true&view=map&week=](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/sqfp?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&search_on=&quality_grade=needs_id&reviewed=&identifications=any&captive=&geoprivacy=&taxon_geoprivacy=&place_id=10574&swlat=&swlng=&nelat=&nelng=¬_in_place=&taxon_name=Tracheophyta&taxon_id=211194&day=&month=&year=&order_by=observations.id&order=desc&rank=&hrank=&lrank=&taxon_ids%5B%5D=&d1=&d2=&created_on=&site=&tdate=&list_id=&filters_open=true&view=map&week=) **Screenshots of what you are seeing** : Before: ![before](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/6/c/6cd82e7759b2e625629f223a68c0b97bbc18b8e1.jpeg) After: ![later](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/5/9/599b7ed512f50b3bef0842437a6db9733cb2d729.jpeg) **Description of problem** : Step 1: go to the _Edit Observations_ page, there _Search_ for some of your observations (e.g. here: at some place, in Needs ID state, for some taxa only), then _select_ some observations (e.g. here: the two first search results) Step 2: hit the _Delete Selected_ button Step 3: watch the selected observations _disappear_ from the current screen, while **not** being _deleted_ (from iNaturalist) It is either a bug (‘Delete Selected’ obs does not actually delete the selected obs), or a very misleading wording (‘Delete Selected’ being really ‘Hide Selected’) ---
**Author:** ![GeolTel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/geoltel/32/76853_2.png) [@GeolTel](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/GeolTel)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174/2 "2024-05-06T20:34:00Z")
addendum: trying to work around the bug using the API (and it works… tediously), I noticed that: every [deletion operation](https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/#!/Observations/delete_observations_id) results in an ‘_error 500_’ message… after which the obs has been correctly deleted. Maybe it’s related. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174/3 "2024-05-06T21:42:54Z")
i would try this again after we’re no longer dealing with [CNC stuff](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/temporary-limitations-on-places-and-taxon-changes-april-24-may-6/50718). what you’re describing could just be a symptom of delayed indexing maybe, where a record has been deleted from the database tables but not yet from the indexes. ---
**Author:** ![GeolTel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/geoltel/32/76853_2.png) [@GeolTel](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/GeolTel)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174/4 "2024-05-07T14:15:15Z")
The thing is, it worked perfectly once automated through the API (save for the weird ‘error 500’ messages returned upon… success). Meanwhile the same operation through the website leads nowhere. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/edit-observations-delete-selected-does-not-work-as-expected/51174/5 "2024-05-07T14:42:40Z")
i don’t think that particular pages goes through the API. so it’s a different workflow on the back end.