bulk deleting reports from salesforce

i swear i used to have a way of deleting reports via the metadata api in bulk many years ago but i could not get that to work

this works:

query reports via workbench to csv

run delete - but not via bulk api - as delete operation not supported on bulk api

so you can do about 1-2 k at a time, vs the native interface which gives you 250, so its better

works for private reports also by adding using SCOPE allPrivate (and ensuring you have the perms to do so) see : https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=000317823&type=1

works for reports

SELECT Id, Owner.Name FROM Report USING SCOPE allPrivate WHERE Owner.IsActive = false limit 1200

and for dashboards

SELECT Id, RunningUser.Name, Title FROM Dashboard USING SCOPE allPrivate WHERE RunningUser.IsActive = false limit 1200