User has deleted a binary asset from Content Manager Explorer but the PDF url still exists in the broker database

User has deleted a binary asset from Content Manager Explorer but the PDF url still exists in the broker database.

When querying the BINARIES table, there is still a reference ID of the BLOB in the database. The user then reloaded the PDF and try to publish it, but publishing failed with the error:

Committing Deployment Failed
Phase: Deployment Prepare Commit Phase failed. Unable to prepare transaction: tcm:0-7035998-66560. Attempting to deploy a binary 389790 to a location 
where a different binary is already stored. Existing binary: 147851.

How to remove the reference of the binary from the broker database?

As the component was already deleted from Content Manager, you can capture the transport package and manually edit it to refer to the component you wish to delete. Then place it back in the deployer's incoming folder for the deployer to process. This way the deployer is responsible for removing the records and preserving database integrity.

1. In the deployer's cd_deployer_conf.xml, set Cleanup="false" in the Location element. E.g.

<Location Path="c:\tridion\incoming" WindowSize="20" Workers="10" Cleanup="false" Interval="2s"/>

2. Take another component present in the same publication and unpublish it.
3. Navigate to the deployer's incoming folder and copy the generated package to another location.
4. Unzip that package and open the instructions.xml and the transaction.xml files.
5. Change the tcm id present to match the id of the component you want to delete.
6. After confirming that you only have references to the id of the component you want to delete, zip the package again.
7. Place the package in the deployer's incoming folder. The deployer will process the package and the component will be unpublished.

For the error "attempting to deploy a binary 389790 to a location where a different binary is already stored. Existing binary: 147851",
it probably is caused by there are more than one multimedia components that have the same physical file name. So, please ensure that the file names for those Multimedia component(s) are unique.

Also, as the component was already deleted from Content Manager without unpublishing first, it will leave behind some references in the broker database that we call 'orphan records'.