You can use the delete_queryset which is coming from Django 2.1 onward for bulk delete objects and the delete_model for single delete. Both methods will handle something before deleting the object.

ModelAdmin.delete_queryset(request, queryset)

---

This is the explanation about delete_queryset in release note of Django 2.1.

The delete_queryset() method is given the HttpRequest and a QuerySet of objects to be deleted. Override this method to customize the deletion process for the “delete selected objects”

Let’s look at what delete_queryset does, you can override admin.ModelAdmin class in this way by including delete_queryset function. Here you’ll get list of object(s), queryset.delete() mean delete all the object(s) at once or you can add a loop to delete one by one.

def delete_queryset(self, request, queryset):
    print('==========================delete_queryset==========================')
    print(queryset)

    """
    you can do anything here BEFORE deleting the object(s)
    """

    queryset.delete()

    """
    you can do anything here AFTER deleting the object(s)
    """

    print('==========================delete_queryset==========================')

So I’m going to delete 5 objects from “select window” and here is those 5 objects.

Then you’ll redirect to the confirmation page like this,

Keep it mind about “Yes, I’m sure” button and I’ll explain it later. When you click that button you will see the below image after removing those 5 objects.

This is the terminal output,

So you’ll get those 5 objects as a list of QuerySet and before deleting you can do anything what ever you want in the comment area.

ModelAdmin.delete_model(request, obj)

---

This is the explanation about delete_model.

The delete_model method is given the HttpRequest and a model instance. Overriding this method allows doing pre- or post-delete operations. Call super().delete_model() to delete the object using Model.delete().

Let’s look at what delete_model does, you can override admin.ModelAdmin class in this way by including delete_model function.

actions = ['delete_model']

def delete_model(self, request, obj):
    print('============================delete_model============================')
    print(obj)

    """
    you can do anything here BEFORE deleting the object
    """

    obj.delete()

    """
    you can do anything here AFTER deleting the object
    """

    print('============================delete_model============================')

I just click my 6th object to delete from the “change window”.

There is another Delete button, when you click it you’ll see the window which we saw earlier.

Click “Yes, I’m sure” button to delete the single object. You’ll see the following window with the notification of that deleted object.

This is the terminal output,

So you’ll get selected object as a single of QuerySet and before deleting you can do anything what ever you want in the comment area.

---

The final conclusion is you can handle the delete event by clicking “Yes, I’m sure” button in “select window” or “change window” in Django Admin Site using delete_queryset and delete_model. In this way we don’t need to handle such a signals like django.db.models.signals.pre_delete or django.db.models.signals.post_delete.

Here is the full code,

from django.contrib import admin

from . import models

class AdminInfo(admin.ModelAdmin):
    model = models.AdminInfo
    actions = ['delete_model']

    def delete_queryset(self, request, queryset):
        print('========================delete_queryset========================')
        print(queryset)

        """
        you can do anything here BEFORE deleting the object(s)
        """

        queryset.delete()

        """
        you can do anything here AFTER deleting the object(s)
        """

        print('========================delete_queryset========================')

    def delete_model(self, request, obj):
        print('==========================delete_model==========================')
        print(obj)

        """
        you can do anything here BEFORE deleting the object
        """

        obj.delete()

        """
        you can do anything here AFTER deleting the object
        """

        print('==========================delete_model==========================')

admin.site.register(models.AdminInfo, AdminInfo)

The main issue is that the Django admin’s bulk delete uses SQL, not instance.delete(), as noted elsewhere. For an admin-only solution, the following solution preserves the Django admin’s “do you really want to delete these” interstitial.

The most general solution is to override the queryset returned by the model’s manager to intercept delete.

from django.contrib.admin.actions import delete_selected

class BulkDeleteMixin(object):
    class SafeDeleteQuerysetWrapper(object):
        def __init__(self, wrapped_queryset):
            self.wrapped_queryset = wrapped_queryset

        def _safe_delete(self):
            for obj in self.wrapped_queryset:
                obj.delete()

        def __getattr__(self, attr):
            if attr == 'delete':
                return self._safe_delete
            else:
                return getattr(self.wrapped_queryset, attr)

        def __iter__(self):
            for obj in self.wrapped_queryset:
                yield obj

        def __getitem__(self, index):
            return self.wrapped_queryset[index]

        def __len__(self):
            return len(self.wrapped_queryset)

    def get_actions(self, request):
        actions = super(BulkDeleteMixin, self).get_actions(request)
        actions['delete_selected'] = (BulkDeleteMixin.action_safe_bulk_delete, 'delete_selected', ugettext_lazy("Delete selected %(verbose_name_plural)s"))
        return actions

    def action_safe_bulk_delete(self, request, queryset):
        wrapped_queryset = BulkDeleteMixin.SafeDeleteQuerysetWrapper(queryset)
        return delete_selected(self, request, wrapped_queryset)

class SomeAdmin(BulkDeleteMixin, admin.ModelAdmin):
    ...

Your method should be

class profilesAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    #...

    def _profile_delete(self, sender, instance, **kwargs):
        # do something

    def delete_model(self, request, object):
        # do something

You should add a reference to current object as the first argument in every method signature (usually called self). Also, the delete_model should be implemented as a method.

you try overriding delete_model method failed because when you delete multiple objects the django use QuerySet.delete(),for efficiency reasons your model’s delete() method will not be called.

you can see it there https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/contrib/admin/actions/
watch the beginning Warning

Admin delete_model() is same as the model’s delete()
https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/contrib/admin/options.py#L1005

so when you delete multiple objects, you custom the delete method will never be call.

you have two way.

1.custom delete action.
action calling Model.delete() for each of the selected items.

2.use signal.
you can use signal alone, not inside the class.

you also can watch this question Django model: delete() not triggered