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Data Retention
Truetask automatically cleans up old operational data on a daily schedule. Retention periods are configurable to meet your organization's compliance and audit requirements (GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA). Project data is never automatically deleted.
What gets cleaned up
A daily cleanup job runs at 3:00 AM and removes old records based on configurable retention periods:
| Data Type | Default Retention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Audit logs | 90 days | Board activity history |
| Notifications | 30 days | Only read notifications are deleted |
| Sessions | 30 days | Expired user sessions |
| Webhook logs | 30 days | Webhook delivery history |
| Error logs | 30 days | Application error records |
What is never deleted
The cleanup job does not touch your project data:
- Boards, lists, and cards
- Comments and checklists
- Uploaded files and attachments
- Users and groups
- Tags and custom attributes
- Time entries
- Automations
These are only deleted through explicit user actions in the application.
Configuration
Adjust retention periods in Settings > Server > Data Retention.
Each data type has an independent retention period in days. Set a value to 0 to disable cleanup for that type (not recommended — the database will grow indefinitely).
Recommended settings
| Environment | Audit Logs | Notifications | Sessions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 90 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Compliance (SOC2, GDPR) | 365 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| High-volume teams | 60 days | 14 days | 14 days |
Additional cleanup behavior
- Completed card integrity — the cleanup job verifies that completed cards are in "done" lists. If a completed card is found in the wrong list, it is moved automatically.
- Orphaned filters — saved filters referencing deleted boards are removed.
Considerations
- Cleanup is permanent — purged records cannot be recovered. Ensure your retention periods meet any audit or compliance requirements before reducing them.
- The cleanup schedule (3:00 AM) is fixed and cannot be changed.
- Retention periods apply to the entire instance, not per-board or per-workspace.
- Unread notifications are never automatically deleted, regardless of the retention setting.