Marketing Cloud Engagement January 2025 Retention Policy Update

Salesforce has updated its data retention policy for Marketing Cloud Engagement. Beginning June 16, 2025, subscriber and journey engagement data is retained and accessible for 730 days. This policy applies to data that you retrieve by using the Email Studio Reports in Analytics Builder, the tracking reports in Email Studio, or requests to SOAP API.

When this policy takes effect, subscriber and journey engagement data that’s more than 730 days old is no longer accessible using these reports. In accounts with a contract date before April 10, 2024, we retain this data indefinitely. In accounts with a contract date after April 10, 2024, data that’s more than 730 days old is deleted.

Export Tracking Data using Automation Studio

You can use Automation Studio to create data extract activities. These activities can be configured to run on a schedule that you specify. You can set up automations to compress your data and send it to an external location such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). For more information, see Data Extract Activity.

General guidelines for setup

Consider pulling data at a weekly or monthly level.
Each extract activity should be placed in its own step in Automation Studio to avoid running these concurrently.
If you have daily extracts of engagement data currently set up, schedule the automation for historical data for a different time of day.

Export Tracking Data for Individual Emails

Email Studio can export send and engagement data for individual messages.

In Email Studio, in the Sends panel, select an email.
Click Export.
Select the export type, report modules, and delivery method, and then enter a filename. Click Export.

Export Analytics Studio Data

You can also export dashboards from Analytics Studio and send them to your preferred destination.

From Analytics Builder, click Reports.
Click View Catalog.
Next to Recent Email Sending Summary, click Create.
Configure the report parameters, and then click Submit.
Use the buttons above the report to email the report, save it to your FTP server, or save it to your computer.

FAQ

Why is the data retention policy changing?

Salesforce updates retention policies to ensure data is accurately managed, and to comply with data management and regulation standards.

Which specific reports does this change impact?

Journey Builder Email Send Summary
Journey Builder Email Send Summary by Day
Unengaged Subscribers for a List
Single Email Performance by Device
Region Performance for Triggered Sends Over Time
Subscriber Most Recent Activity
Subscriber Engagement

The list of impacted reports is subject to change.

My Marketing Cloud Engagement contract is dated April 10, 2024 or later. How much data can I access?

Beginning on June 16, 2025 subscriber engagement data is retained for 730 days. Therefore, you can access only the most recent 730 days of data.

My Marketing Cloud Engagement contract is dated before April 10, 2024. How much data can I access?

If your contract is dated before April 10, 2024, we retain a copy of the raw send and engagement data older than 730 days. However, you will not be able to access this data through the UI, reports, or APIs. Upon contract renewal, this data will be deleted.

Does this change apply to Hyperforce orgs?

Yes, the 730-day data retention limit applies to orgs built on both first-party and Hyperforce architectures.

Does this change apply to Intelligence Reports for Engagement?

No. Data in Intelligence reports for Engagement is retained for 2 years. For more information, see Overview of Data in Intelligence Reports.

Does this change apply to data retention policies for data extensions?

No. Data retention policies for data extensions are managed by Marketing Cloud admins.

Does this change apply to Data Views?

Currently, most data views only contain data from the previous 6 months (this was already a standard limit and was not changed as a result of this new data retention policy).