---
schema_version: "1"
id: 21ba2ac8757045ca57e2232f447a9c7cfd31a5fd1ad0c9a0da2dd5090b8baebf
title: Understand Backup Retention
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/xcloud/264-0-0/backup_recover_retention_policy.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.backup_recover_retention_policy.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 6e60602dfb3d2d95a3f2f0dde49f0db1ee46c34ffba44bee60ae2facd8174c18
description: A data retention policy describes how long to keep data to meet business or legal requirements. You can configure these policies to align with your organization’s internal requirements for data backups and control how long Salesforce stores your backups.
products:
  - Salesforce Platform
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Understand Backup Retention

A data retention policy describes how long to keep data to meet business or legal requirements. You can configure these policies to align with your organization’s internal requirements for data backups and control how long Salesforce stores your backups.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: Lightning Experience</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <strong>Professional</strong>, <strong>Enterprise</strong>, <strong>Performance</strong>, and <strong>Unlimited</strong> Editions with the Backup &amp; Recover Data and Backup &amp; Recover Files add-on licenses</td></tr></tbody></table>

Salesforce stores your backups on encrypted volumes and retains them for a set number of years by default. Modify how long to retain your backups based on when the backup took place. After the retention period ends, we delete the backup and it's no longer accessible.

We use the grandfather-father-son (GFS) retention method, with daily, weekly, and monthly policies.

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small "><colgroup><col style="width:50%"> <col style="width:50%"></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><strong>Default</strong></td><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Configure how long the frequent backups (backups that run multiple times a day) are stored, up to 30 days.</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><strong>Daily</strong></td><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Configure how long to store the first daily scheduled backup that runs in a day. If your backups are scheduled to run at 11:59 PM, the first successful backup that runs from this time is your daily backup.</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><strong>Weekly</strong></td><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Configure how long to store one backup per week. Backups that run on Saturdays—or the closest successful backup, if Saturday failed or completed with errors—tier to weekly backups. The weekly backup policy overrides the daily policy for these backups.</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><strong>Monthly</strong></td><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Configure how long to store one backup per month. Backups that run on the first day of the month—or the closest successful backup, if the first backup failed or completed with errors—tier to monthly backups. The monthly backup policy overrides the daily and weekly policies for these backups.</td></tr></tbody></table>

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-xcloud-setup-264-0-0-production-enus/6f21df35-9ea0-4f53-ac94-45c3b5dfd5bc/images/icon_example.png)

Example The daily retention policy is set to 10 years, so all scheduled daily backups are retained for 10 years. The weekly retention policy is set to 15 years. The backup that runs on Saturday becomes a weekly backup. Its retention policy updates to 15 years, overriding the 10-year daily policy.

- **[Configure Your Backup Retention Policy](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.backup_recover_configure_retention.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Choose how long to retain your backups.