Shuge Unlimited

Jun 21, 2026 · Databases

Why Deleting 1 Million Vectors in Milvus Doesn't Shrink Disk Space: A Deep Dive into 11 CompactionTypes

When Milvus appears to keep disk usage unchanged after deleting a million vectors, the cause is not a bug but a sophisticated compaction system that splits the single compact() API into eleven enum values, six independent policies, and seven special handling paths that together manage different kinds of data waste and ensure safe, incremental reclamation.