What stays after files are deleted

When a request's files are deleted, by the retention period or with Delete files now, the files themselves go, and so does the text that could describe them. The request record stays in your workspace, so you can still see what was asked for and what happened.

What's deleted

• Every file the client uploaded for the request, including earlier versions that were replaced.
• Files you shared with the client on the request.
• Any ZIP of the request's files made with Download all files.
• The text of your client's short answers and notes.
• The notes you wrote when you sent a file or answer back.
• Your client's access. The request leaves their client link page, and its own link shows "This link isn't valid anymore".

What stays

• The request: its title, client, message, due date, status, who it's assigned to, and when it was sent, opened and completed.
• The names of the documents you asked for.
• For each uploaded file: its name, size, type, when it was uploaded, and who viewed or downloaded it.
• For each short answer and client note: when it was sent, and who read the note. Each one says "Deleted by" and a name, or "Deleted after the retention period", instead of its text.
• Review decisions: who approved each file or sent it back, and when.
• Files you shared: their names and sizes, who shared them, and when your client downloaded them.
• The activity history, including who deleted the files, or that the retention period did. Some entries name the client's email address, for example when the request was resent.

Each document shows "Deleted by" and a name, or "Deleted after the retention period", where its files used to be. Files can no longer be previewed or downloaded, on the request or on the Documents page.

Outside the request

• Your notes about the client on the client's page aren't part of the request, so they stay.
• Webhooks: if you send events to your own systems, GarnerDocs keeps a log of each delivery, including file names and note text, for 30 days. Copies your systems received are yours to delete.
• Emails already sent, such as new-note alerts, stay in the inboxes they went to.

How long the record stays

Today, everything under "What stays" is kept until you delete the client or the workspace. Completed and cancelled requests can't be deleted on their own: only drafts can be.

Deleting a client permanently

To erase everything about one client, for example when they ask you to, an owner or admin archives them, then opens their page and chooses ⋯ → Delete permanently. You see what will go before you confirm by typing their name. It deletes:

• the client, with your notes and contact details for them;
• every request for them, with its files (every version), shared files, ZIPs, answers, notes and reminders;
• the activity history about them, and the logs of webhooks sent about their requests.

Your activity history keeps one line saying a client was deleted, by whom and when, with how many requests and files, but not their name. Emails already sent, and files you downloaded or received by webhook, aren't affected.

Deleting the workspace

When the owner deletes the workspace from Settings → Workspace → Danger zone, everything goes straight away: clients, requests, files and history. There's no undo and no waiting period.

• Your team's GarnerDocs accounts stay. Each person is removed from the workspace, and can still sign in to any other workspace they belong to.
• The subscription is cancelled at once. Invoices and payment records stay with our payment provider (Stripe), as billing records.

Legal holds

If the law or a court requires you to keep a request's documents, the owner can choose ⋯ → Place legal hold on the request, with a reason and a date to review it. While the hold lasts, nothing on that request is deleted: not by the retention period, Delete files now, deleting the client or deleting the workspace.

The hold doesn't end on its own. On the review date the request page shows that the review is overdue. When the owner releases the hold, the retention period applies again, with the usual warning emails before any files are deleted.

Backups

Copies of deleted files and records may stay in restricted backups for up to 30 days. They aren't used for anything else and are erased when the backups expire.

Good to know

• Download the files before they're deleted if you need them. Once they're gone, GarnerDocs can't get them back.
• The Privacy Policy lists what's kept, under "Storage and retention".