Hi Sitecore folks! 👋
Upgrading Sitecore is always an exciting step forward — more features, improved performance, and enhanced stability. But let’s be honest: it’s not always smooth sailing.
We recently upgraded from Sitecore 10.1 to 10.4, and while most things worked seamlessly, we hit a snag that many of you might also face post-upgrade — orphaned or missing templates, especially related to SXA Flash items.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through:
✅ What went wrong
✅ Why it mattered
✅ How we solved it using PowerShell (our superhero 🦸♂️)
✅ And how you can do it too
Whether you’re maintaining a single Sitecore instance or overseeing 160+ SXA-based websites like we are — this one’s for you.
🧨 The Issue: Missing Templates for Flash Items
After the upgrade, we noticed something odd in our SXA environments. In the Data folder, several “Flashes” items were still visible — but something wasn’t right:
- We couldn’t interact with them.
- Their templates were missing.
- Deletion through the Content Editor? Not possible.
That’s when we turned to the old-school trick of visiting /sitecore/admin/dbbrowser.aspx, where we could manually select and delete these items. But here’s the thing—with 160+ websites across Dev, UAT, and Prod, manual cleanup just wasn’t an option.
😫 Why Manual Fixes Just Don’t Scale
When you’re dealing with tens or hundreds of websites, manual steps become a maintenance nightmare. What if you miss one? What if someone deletes the wrong thing?
We needed:
- 💡 A repeatable, automated process
- ⚡ A fast solution
- 🔄 The ability to run across multiple environments without human error
And that’s where PowerShell stepped in and saved the day.
💻 PowerShell to the Rescue
One of the most powerful tools in the Sitecore ecosystem is PowerShell Extensions (SPE). If you’re not using it yet — trust me, you’re missing out.
We wrote two scripts:
- ✅ One to identify Flash items with missing templates
- ❌ Another to delete them safely
🔍 Step 1: Identify Orphaned Flash Items
Here’s a sample PowerShell script that recursively searches for Flash items with missing templates:
# Define the template Name for the Settings item $dataFolderTemplate = "DataFolder" # List to hold matching flashes items $matchingFlashes = @() # Fast query to get all Settings items under /sitecore/content with the specified template ID $dataItems = Get-Item -Path master: -Query "fast:/sitecore/content//*[@@templatename='$dataFolderTemplate']" foreach ($dataItem in $dataItems) { # Check if the Settings item has a flashes item under it $flashPath = "$($dataItem.Paths.FullPath)/Flashes" $flashItem = Get-Item -Path $flashPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue # If flashes item exists and matches the target template ID if ($flashItem -ne $null) { #$flashItem | Set-ItemTemplate -Template $targetTemplateId #Publish-Item -Item $flashItem -Target "web" -Recurse $matchingFlashes += $flashItem #$flashItem | Remove-Item #Write-Host " Found flashes: $($flashItem.Paths.FullPath)" } else{ Write-Host " Not Found flashes: $($dataItem.Paths.FullPath)" } } # Output matched flashes items #$matchingFlashes | Select-Object Name, TemplateName, @{Name="Path";Expression={$_.Paths.FullPath}} $matchingFlashes | Show-ListView -Property Name, TemplateName, @{Name="Path";Expression={$_.Paths.FullPath}} -Title "Flash under Home" # Show total count of matching $matchingFlashescts items Write-Host "" Write-Host "Total matching flashes items: $($matchingFlashes.Count)" -ForegroundColor Green
📌 This script outputs a clean list of problematic Flash items in your tree —
great for auditing before deletion.
🧹 Step 2: Clean Up with a Deletion Script
Once verified, we ran the following PowerShell script to safely delete the Flash items:
# Define the template Name for the Settings item $dataFolderTemplate = "DataFolder" # List to hold matching flashes items $matchingFlashes = @() # Fast query to get all Settings items under /sitecore/content with the specified template ID $dataItems = Get-Item -Path master: -Query "fast:/sitecore/content//*[@@templatename='$dataFolderTemplate']" foreach ($dataItem in $dataItems) { # Check if the Settings item has a flashes item under it $flashPath = "$($dataItem.Paths.FullPath)/Flashes" $flashItem = Get-Item -Path $flashPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue # If flashes item exists and matches the target template ID if ($flashItem -ne $null) { #$flashItem | Set-ItemTemplate -Template $targetTemplateId #Publish-Item -Item $flashItem -Target "web" -Recurse $matchingFlashes += $flashItem $flashItem | Remove-Item #Write-Host " Found flashes: $($flashItem.Paths.FullPath)" } else{ Write-Host " Not Found flashes: $($dataItem.Paths.FullPath)" } } # Output matched flashes items #$matchingFlashes | Select-Object Name, TemplateName, @{Name="Path";Expression={$_.Paths.FullPath}} $matchingFlashes | Show-ListView -Property Name, TemplateName, @{Name="Path";Expression={$_.Paths.FullPath}} -Title "Flash under Home" # Show total count of matching $matchingFlashescts items Write-Host "" Write-Host "Total matching flashes items: $($matchingFlashes.Count)" -ForegroundColor Green
🎯 This script saved us hours of manual work and helped ensure consistency across all environments.
🎯 Bonus: Target Specific Items If Needed
Need to delete a specific item? You can tweak the $sitecoreItemPath in the script:
$sitecoreItemPath = "/sitecore/content/your-specific-item-path"💡 This flexibility makes it easy to manage exceptions or troubleshoot individual issues without running global deletions.
🧠 Lessons Learned
- Automate early. Don’t wait until the cleanup becomes overwhelming.
- PowerShell is your best friend for large-scale Sitecore environments.
- Always audit before deleting — especially post-upgrade when things can be unpredictable.
- SXA upgrades may leave artifacts, so include this check in your post-upgrade checklist.
🙌 Final Thoughts
If you’re upgrading Sitecore (or planning to), keep PowerShell in your toolkit. It’s not just a scripting language — it’s your automation Swiss Army knife 🔧 for Sitecore maintenance.
These scripts helped us clean up 160+ websites in minutes — not hours or days.
🗣️ Over to You!
Have you faced a similar issue post-upgrade?
Do you have other cleanup tips or automation tricks?
Drop your thoughts in the comments — I’d love to learn from your experience!
🔗 Script Reference:
GitHub — DeleteFlashesItem.ps1
📌 Stay tuned for more Sitecore insights, real-world fixes, and automation guides.
Till then, happy Sitecoring! 💙