Data retention

What you need

Sign in to change your own account defaults. To change a monitor, you must own its workspace. Other workspace members can read the effective periods, but cannot change them. Account defaults also apply to monitors in archived workspaces. Deletion removes all monitor data regardless of these periods.

Available periods

Use whole days, from one day up to the limits below. Without an individual setting, these maximum periods apply. A day means the last 24 hours, including across daylight saving changes.

Change account defaults

1. Open Settings and choose “Change data retention”.
2. Keep the system default for each data type, or enter a shorter period in whole days.
3. Open the deletion preview. Review affected monitors, data types and time boundaries; a large account shows a limited list and the total affected count.
4. If a period becomes shorter, explicitly confirm the displayed deletion and save. Cancelling leaves the saved settings unchanged.

Choose periods for one monitor

1. Open the monitor and its Settings tab, then choose “Change data retention”.
2. Inherit the account default for each data type, or choose a shorter individual period. The system and account limits remain binding.
3. Review the preview, confirm any shortening and save. The overview shows the effective periods, their source and system limits.
4. To remove all monitor overrides, choose “Use account defaults”, then review and save. You can also restore inheritance for just one data type.

Good to know

The shortest permitted period applies: system limit, account default or monitor setting. For example, an account default of three days and a monitor setting of one day keep originals for one day. Other data types can keep their longer summaries.

If you shorten the account default below a saved monitor value, the account limit takes effect immediately; the monitor shows this restriction. You can later lengthen a period within the allowed limits or return to inherited defaults. Already expired or deleted data does not return.

Availability and cleanup

Expired data becomes unavailable as soon as you save. Old query results and server downloads can no longer be reused. Physical removal runs in the background; the displayed status tells you whether cleanup is running, paused or complete.

A pause can mean that archive storage is unavailable, a data query is still running or summaries are being completed. Cleanup resumes automatically. Data belonging to other monitors remains intact. Missing source data is shown as a gap; it is not replaced by a guessed value.

These settings apply to telemetry and its summaries. Incident and delivery history, saved reports and security records have their own periods. Copies already downloaded or sent to an external destination cannot be removed by these settings.

How to do it

1. Open a series history and select the period you need.
2. Use original readings for recent detail and a coarser resolution for older periods.
3. Export data before its retention period ends if you need your own copy.

Retention through the API

Read the current policy, request a preview for your exact draft and save it with its current revision and preview ID. A shorter period also needs explicit deletion confirmation. A stale revision returns HTTP 409: read the current settings and review a new preview. Changes require the owner’s browser session and CSRF protection.

• GET Read retention settings (account)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• POST Preview retention changes (account)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• PUT Save confirmed retention settings (account)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• DELETE Restore inherited retention settings (account)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• GET Read retention settings (device)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• POST Preview retention changes (device)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• PUT Save confirmed retention settings (device)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

• DELETE Restore inherited retention settings (device)

  Whole rolling 24-hour days, at least one. The effective lifetime is the minimum of system limits, the owning account and monitor overrides. Null inherits. Shortening immediately hides expired data and schedules physical cleanup; a paused cleanup shows its reason. Expired data does not return after lengthening or reset. Incidents, delivery history, reports and security logs have separate lifetimes; external copies are unaffected. Changes require an owning browser account, CSRF and a current revision. Account settings always belong to the authenticated person, including when a shared workspace is selected. Monitor readers may inspect the policy; only its workspace owner may change it. If this feature is unavailable, changes respond with HTTP 503; the read response reports whether you may change the setting.

If something goes wrong

If saving fails, your entries remain in the dialog. If someone changed the settings in the meantime, load the current values and review your change again. For an expired preview, request a new preview. If old data stays unavailable after lengthening, it has already expired and cannot be restored.