Does shrinking a database delete data?

What happens when you shrink database?

Shrinking data files recovers space by moving pages of data from the end of the file to unoccupied space closer to the front of the file. When enough free space is created at the end of the file, data pages at end of the file can be deallocated and returned to the file system.

Is it safe to shrink a database?

This is true that shrinking a database is not recommended. You can understand it like this when you shrink the database then it leads to increase in fragmentation now to reduce the fragmentation you try to rebuilt the index which will eventually lead to increase in your database size.

Does shrink database affect performance?

But shrinking may affect your database performance significantly, if not properly done. Shrinking will increase fragmentation and will cause any DB operation costly. Rebuild indexes is necessary after DB shrink to reduce fragmentation and increase performance.

Should I shrink database or files?

Databases tend to grow as more data gets put in them. It's in their nature. Shrinking causes massive fragmentation and will just result in the data file growing again next time data gets added. When that happens, the entire system will slow down as the file is expanded.