Confluence Archive Retention

[Shayla Nastasi]

Do the pages that are archived ever get deleted i.e. is there a default retention period for pages that have been archived?

[Clark Everson · Accepted solution]

Hi @Shayla Nastasi 

No they do not. You would need an add on like script runner to create a script that does this for you.

Best,
Clark

[Shayla Nastasi]

Thanks! That's what I was hoping. I'm trying to make the case that we should be archiving pages that aren't needed anymore but everyone's afraid they'll get deleted, but couldn't find explicit information on this. I appreciate you taking the time to answer!

[Fabio Racobaldo [Catworkx] · Accepted solution]

Hi @Shayla Nastasi ,

there is no retention for archived space https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/archive-a-space/

Hope this helps,

Fabio

[Shayla Nastasi]

Ah! Perfect- this is the documentation I needed! Thank you!

[Fabio Racobaldo [Catworkx]]

you're welcome @Shayla Nastasi 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Shayla Nastasi 

You can configure flexible retention for archived pages with the Better Content Archiving app:

Steps:

1. Edit your automation scheme
2. Add a new automation
   1. Select your preferred schedule (e.g. weekly)
   2. Enter a CQL query to find the pages that should be purged (e.g. search for those that were archived more than a year ago)
   3. Check the "Search in archived pages" option (so that it doesn't search among non-archived pages)
   4. Select the "Purge" action (it will permanently remove those pages)
3. Save you changes.

... and that's it!

From this point, you have an auto-purge mechanism for those pages that were archived more than a year ago, with every part customizable!

👉 See the documentation.

It may be a good idea to set up a custom notification that is sent e.g. a week before the "purge" with the contents that will be purged soon. It gives a chance to prevent unexpected removal.

(Discl. this app is developed and supported by our team. Free for 10 users!)

[Darin - Opus Guard]

Hi @Shayla NastasiFor Confluence Cloud there is no default retention period. Your content will live on as long as your subscription is active or you build out policies and automation.

Check out Content Retention Manager for Confluence in the Atlassian Marketplace for a possible easy to use solution to help you with auditing and building a data retention policy. In Atlassian Confluence, deleted content is fully recoverable by admins, only when content is purged is it irrecoverable/undiscoverable (for ISO/SOC2 definitions). 

Archiving content means it's still available for recovery and counts against storage. Deleting doesn't count against storage but is still considered discoverable content in terms of data risk with ISO/SOC2 compliance. For those who are concerned about permanently deleting content, sometimes that's actually required by various regulations. Purging old outdated content can help reduce risk as well. If your company has PII in systems and a published retention period, failure to remove content after that period can create a liability. Good content hygiene is also about accounting for a bad actor scenario where someone gained access to your systems and if sensitive data is readily available, there can be liability as a data owner. Check out a quick read here Why Develop a Data Retention Policy