How retention policies affect data retention

Here is how the Connected retention process determines which files to keep, given the following data-related retention policy values:

  • Daily versions = D
  • Recent versions = R

When the retention process runs, it typically retains files as follows, regardless of whether a file is active or marked as deleted:

  • It keeps R recent versions.

    Connected keeps the first R versions it finds, starting with the current day and looking back a maximum of D previous calendar days.

  • It keeps D daily versions.

    Connected keeps the last version of the day, if one exists, for the past D days, not including the day retention runs. It is not uncommon for some versions identified as "recent versions" to also be a daily version.

If, based on policy, the retention process determines that it will not retain any versions of a file, Connected performs additional retention processing, depending on the file's state:

  • Active file. Connected keeps the most recent version, regardless of its date. This version corresponds to the file that exists on the user's device.

  • File marked as deleted. Connected retains the most recent version of deleted files for at least a grace period of D calendar days after receipt of the deletion notification. The first time that the retention process runs after the grace period expires, it permanently deletes the file.

  • File excluded from backup by the user or a policy change . How the retention process handles the file depends on whether the backup policy's Retain files excluded by policy option is selected:

    • Not selected (default setting). Connected marks the excluded file as "deleted" and the retention process handles it as described in the previous File marked as deleted section.

    • Selected. Connected treats the file as active (even though the Agent no longer protects it) and keeps its most recent version, regardless of date.

      Because the Agent no longer tracks changes to the file, this version does not necessarily correspond to the one on the user's device. In fact, the user might have deleted the file from the device after the file had been excluded.

For more detailed information about how the retention process applies daily and recent retention values, see Data retention examples.