Retention protects business-critical files while helping Administrators comply with data retention laws, regulations, and contract requirements. The default retention period set in Secure & Govern will preserve all files in Connect sources for a designated time. These default settings act as a fallback: if no retention policy matches a file, the default retention period applies. If multiple retention periods cover the same files, the longest one takes precedence. Learn how to set up a default retention period below.
Set a Default Retention Period
- Navigate to Settings on the main Secure & Govern page.
- Select Content Lifecycle from the left side navigation.
- Click Edit to change the default retention period for the Connect content source.
- Select a retention period from the drop-down or choose Custom to create a custom default retention policy.
- Once selected, click Save to apply the changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Date Does the Default Retention Use When Applied to Files?
The default retention is based on the file creation date.
Does Default Retention Apply To All Files?
In Egnyte Secure & Govern, the default retention policy acts as a fallback, that is only if there are no retention policy matches for a given file. If configured the default retention policy would apply to a file.
Why are All Recently Deleted Files Appearing as Retained?
Files in trash show as being retained because Egnyte Secure & Govern enforces a 7 day grace period for items within the trash once any Default Retention or Retention Policy has been configured for a domain. This ensures that Secure & Govern can correctly process and keep deleted files, even if the time between file creation and deletion is very short (for example, a user creates a file and immediately deletes it).
This grace period ensures that Secure & Govern always enforces the retention rules configured, no matter what. The grace period means that deleted files cannot be purged manually or automatically until one week after they have been deleted. After one week, if the deleted file is not subject to retention, it won't show Under retention anymore and can be purged.
Why are There Some Folders in Trash that are not Under Retention Even With the Default Retention Enabled?
Data Retention focuses on the files themselves and not the folder, so retention will never be placed on an empty folder since there are no files to retain within it. Empty folders that are in Trash will be purged based on the Trash policy settings.
How Can I Purge Files that are Covered by Default Retention Without Changing It?
Because retention policies always take precedence over default retention, the easiest way to shorten a file’s retention is to create a short-period retention policy (1 day, for example) and apply it to the files that users need to purge.
If the files are already in the trash:
a) Users will need to either specify their original location in the retention policy OR
b) Restore them and then move them to a new location specified in the retention policy.
Once the shorter retention period expires for those files, they can be purged from the trash.
Newly deleted files will still be subject to the 1-week grace period, even if the retention period specified in the policy is less than that.