Data retention and legal hold

Retention windows and the legal hold live in Settings ▸ Data, below Backups. Only owners and admins see them.

1. Choose a window

Each kind of data has a box for a number of days, from 30 to 3650. Leave it empty to keep that data for as long as the workspace exists. Each row says what is removed and what stays: for form submissions the answers, files and IP address go, and the fact that a submission happened stays so your form reports still count it. Chat transcripts are only removed from closed conversations.

2. Check how much it reaches

After you save, each row shows how many items are past the window today. Shortening a window asks you to confirm, and if you signed in more than 15 minutes ago, to confirm it's you, because the next nightly run removes those items for good.

3. Place a legal hold when you must keep everything

Type a reason (a matter name or reference) and press Place hold. While it is on, nothing automatic or requested deletes your workspace's data: retention windows pause, our own log tidying skips your workspace, erasure requests are logged but wait, and deleted objects or a closed workspace are not finally purged. People can still delete things by hand. Lift it with Lift the hold; everything carries on from that night.

4. Product usage data

Underneath, Product usage data records which parts of Solstral your team uses (by member and time, never what was in them and never anything about your contacts), kept 13 months. You can report on it under Reports (Product moments), or switch it off.