I am facing issues with purging user events in ‘Search for Commerce’. Following the official documentation ( Manage user events | Vertex AI Search for commerce | Google Cloud ), I implemented the Python code with filters (such as eventTime and eventType) to delete user events.
While the purge operation itself runs successfully, it takes approximately 18–24 hours to complete. However, even after receiving a successful completion status, the events are still visible on the Search for Commerce dashboard. I also allowed 24–48 hours for the purge to reflect, but there has been no change.
Could someone please help me understand why the purged events are still appearing on the dashboard and guide us on how to resolve this issue?
I can further provide the purge process IDs and the success status messages received if needed.
it is likely due to the async nature of data processing and caching even after the purge operation successfully completes, there is significant time lag before the changes are fully propagated across all systems, including the dashboard’s display.
Instead of relying solely on the dashboard, use the list method of the Search for Commerce API to programmatically check for the events you tried to purge. If the events are no longer returned by the list method, it confirms that the purge was successful, and the dashboard delay is a caching issue.
Thank you for clarifying the caching and propagation delay issue—that makes sense. I’m now able to fetch the real-time user events data programmatically.
As a follow-up, I understand that Google doesn’t typically take in user data for privacy reasons. However, is there any supported way to ingest customer data into Vertex AI Search for Commerce for permissioned users only? I’m exploring options to hyper-personalize my use case and would like to know if there’s an approved or recommended approach for securely incorporating customer-specific data.
It sounds like the purge is completing on the backend, but the dashboard might still be showing cached or indexed data. In many cases, Search for Commerce dashboards take extra time to fully refresh after a purge, sometimes longer than the 48 hours mentioned.
A few things to try:
Confirm the purge request actually targeted the correct eventType and eventTime ranges. Even small mismatches can leave events untouched.
Check if there’s any replication lag if you’re using multiple regions.
If possible, contact Google Cloud Support with your purge process IDs — they can verify whether the events were fully deleted or if something is stuck in the system.
Providing the process IDs and status messages would definitely help the community or support team give a more precise answer.