Data and security
How long files are kept
Your retention period, when it starts and how changing it works.
Last updated · Facts checked
GarnerDocs keeps the files on a request for your workspace's retention period, counted from the day the request is completed: 30 days, 90 days, 180 days or 1 year. Then the files are deleted.
GarnerDocs is for collecting documents, not archiving them. Before the period ends, download what you need and keep it in your own system.
Some records must be kept for longer than a year by law, such as anti-money-laundering records or right-to-work checks. Export those to your own records system: GarnerDocs's longest period is 1 year.
Before you start
Owners and admins only. Members can see the period on Settings → Workspace but can't change it.
When the clock starts
The period starts when a request is completed: when you select Mark complete, or when you approve its last document. Drafts and requests that are still collecting documents are never deleted this way.
Cancelled requests aren't deleted this way either, including those cancelled when you archived a client. Their files stay until an owner or admin deletes them with Delete files now. Delete a request's files early
A completed request shows its date under its title: "Files are kept until 12 January 2027", then "Files will be deleted on …" once the first warning has gone out.
Change the period
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Open Settings → Workspace
Find File retention in the Workspace card.
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Choose a period
Pick 30 days, 90 days (recommended), 180 days or 1 year.
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Save
Select Save changes under the card.
Requests can't be sent until an owner or admin has confirmed the period once. Confirm how long files are kept
What happens next
- Longer period: requests already scheduled for deletion move to their new, later date. Nobody is emailed about the move, and the final warning is sent again before the new date.
- Shorter period: no date moves earlier. Requests that haven't been warned yet get a deletion date at least 14 days away, so files are never deleted with less than 14 days' notice.
- Either way, the change is recorded in your activity history, with who made it.
Good to know
- You're emailed 14 days and 3 days before files are deleted, and again afterwards. Deletion warning emails
- Use Download all files on the request to save everything as a ZIP. Download all files as a ZIP
- You can delete a completed or cancelled request's files yourself. Delete a request's files early
- The request itself, its checklist and its history stay after the files go. What stays after files are deleted