how to discover where mini-panels are surfaced in Drupal 7 We have an old, infrequently updated site which has a custom module which we wrote that either needs to be updated or removed. 

This module provides two blocks, and if those blocks aren't being used, we can remove the module. Otherwise, we have to update it to use new functionality, which we would like to avoid if it's not necessary. 

I looked under the admin/structure/block menu and discovered they are not placed in any regions. 

Since I'm a back-end developer, and not really familiar with the theming and templating, I asked one of our front-end devs if the blocks might be used in any other places on the site. She looked through the pages and panelizer stuff, and discovered that the block is being used in a Mini Panel. 

So now, the question is, is the mini-panel surfaced to end-users? Nobody presently at the organization is familiar with mini-panels and how they are used. Is there a way, either through the UI or perhaps looking through the tables, to find out of a particular mini-panel is being used?
Assuming your site is using Drupal 7 version.

Mini-panels gives us a way to group together multiple blocks (and other content) into a single block. Which can then be placed on page using Panels or Drupal Blocks (Admin => Structure => Blocks). Check this Question Looking for a good Mini - Panels tutorial for more details.

There are 3 places you can check if Mini Panels are actually used in your site:


Drupal Blocks (Admin => Structure => Blocks) - Block name is usually shown as 'Mini panel: "Mini Panel Name"'
Panel Pages (Admin => Structure => Pages). Check all panel pages by editing them and navigating to Content section of Panel page.
Rendered in Code directly (Since this works similar to block, and can be rendered using the way blocks are rendered programatically). i.e. programatically rendered in theme or module. This might not be in your case, but just to make sure you can check this as well.


This Tutorial shows use of Mini Panels as Drupal Block.

Check out this tutorial on How to use Mini-Panels to create one block that includes all our global blocks - The video is paid, but description gives an overview of what it is.