Marketing Cloud Data Retention information

Data Retention

Data that runs off the end of the Data Retention Policy on a Data Extension is permanently deleted. A Data Retention Policy on a Data Extension should be selected when creating a Data Extension. With recent updates it is now possible to make updates to the time frame being used for Row-Based Retention or Object-Based Retention, as well as to add Row-Based Retention after the creation of a new Data Extension as long as there are less than  1 billion records contained in the Data Extension.  

Data Extensions

Records on a Data Extension are retained indefinitely unless a Data Retention Policy is in place.  If using contact delete, records are deleted from sendable Data extensions.

Note: Earlier, the retention was not applied to the older records present in the data extension after adding the retention to an existing data extension. Now, this has been possible due to the release "Review New Data Retention Improvement in Contact Builder".

To know more, see Manage Data Retention Policy. 

Subscriber Records (Lists)

Subscribers who have been entered into the system, and are present on a list (including the All Subscribers List) are retained indefinitely.

If a Subscriber record is deleted from your application through the Subscribers tab in the Email Studio, it is "soft deleted" -- the record can be reactivated, thereby granting access again within the user interface.   If a Subscriber record is deleted through the application through the Contacts Delete framework it can not be reactivated.   
 

Enhanced FTP

Marketing Cloud retains your files on the Marketing Cloud FTP for at least 21 days. Any file that is older than 21 days is eligible for removal, and we can remove files any time after 21 days. However, there is no assurance or guarantee of removal for files older than 21 days. To ensure that your files are deleted, remove the files from your FTP location via your FTP account. We cannot recover any files deleted from your FTP location. Consider this information as you apply any retention automation to your files.