# Retention

# Retention

Choose how long the cloud keeps recorded data, once for the whole organization,
in **Reservoir → Settings → Retention**. Data older than the span you set is
deleted. An empty box means **keep forever**, the default.

Your plan also states a retention period (Starter: 60 days — see
[Members and plans](https://phloem.ai/docs/workspace/members/)). The spans you set here are what
Phloem actually deletes by.

| Setting | Covers | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| **Video** | Camera footage and other recordings. | The biggest cost — a short span here frees the most storage |
| **Geometry** | Point clouds and other geometric captures. | Lidar-heavy fleets |
| **Scalars** | Numeric and text channel data. | Keep long; it is small and it is your record of the run |

1. Type a whole number of days (1–36500) and press **Save**.
2. Confirm on **Change data retention?**.

Each box shows the current setting below it. If the change hasn't been applied
yet, the page shows **Saved, but not yet applied to the lake** with a **Retry**
button.

Waveforms, `occurrences` and the trellis tables (`trellis_measurements`,
`trellis_verdicts`, `trellis_commands`) are kept forever. Timeline summaries of
scalars outlive the raw samples, so long-window charts still draw after the
rows are gone.

> **Warning:** Shortening a span deletes data at the next cleanup, and it cannot
> be undone. Deletion works in whole days: a 1-day setting keeps 1 to 2 days.

Only an organization admin can change these. Everyone else sees them read-only.