Retain Drive files with Vault

For your information governance plan, you can set retention rules for Google Drive files and specify how long they are retained in Drive. For example, you can specify that some files should be kept for 7 years. Or that other files should be deleted after their retention period ends.

In this article, learn how retention rules work with Drive items, how to choose data to retain, how to set a retention period, and more.

• Important information about Drive & retention
• About scope, conditions & duration
• Create a custom Drive retention rule
• Create the default Drive retention rule
• Delete a custom Drive retention rule
• Delete the default Drive retention rule

Important information about Drive & retention

Before you set retention rules, we strongly recommend you read about how retention works and review the Drive files supported in Vault.

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About scope, conditions & duration

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Create a custom Drive retention rule

Note: To set retention duration on Drive label date fields, first create a Drive label condition with a date field. Learn how to create Drive labels for your organization.

1. Sign in to vault.google.com.
2. Click RetentionCustom RulesCreate.
3. Next to Service, select Driveclick Continue.
4. Choose the scope of your rule:
   • Organizational unit—Apply the rule to a specific organizational unit:
     1. Click the field and choose an organizational unit.
     2. (Optional) If you want the rule to be applied to any item in a shared drive that your organization owns, and if a user in the selected organizational unit is a direct member of the drive or has direct access to the item, turn on Include items from shared drives. This option can extend retention, but not delete files. For more information, see All shared drives and specific shared drives.
   • All shared drives—Apply the rule to all shared drives in your organization.
   • Specific shared drives—Apply the rule to one or more shared drives.

     Select the shared drives and click Add. If you have many shared drives and the list is paginated, your selection is preserved as you change pages. If you check the Select all box at the top of the list, it selects only the current page. You can also search the list by a member’s email or by the shared drive’s name.

     1. To filter the list by the email address of a member:
        1. Click Find by member email.
        2. Enter one or more accounts.
        3. Click Find.
     2. To filter the list by the name of the shared drive (if your organization has less than 1,000 shared drives):
        1. Click Filter by name and enter letters in the name of the shared drive. For example, pr matches shared drives named “Sales projects”, “Marketing Projects”, and “Product management”, but not “Repairs”.

           The paginated list automatically updates as you add letters.

        2. Check the box or boxesclick Enter.

     3. To find the shared drive by name (if your organization has more than 1,000 shared drives):
        1. Click Find by shared drive name.
        2. Enter one or more words in the name of the shared drive. Note: Words must be exact and complete. For example, marketing, projects matches shared drives named “Marketing projects Q4’22” and “Projects for marketing”. It doesn’t match a shared drive named “Marketing project archive” because “project” doesn’t end with an “s”. Similarly, ma doesn’t match any of these shared drives because it’s only part of a word, not the complete word.
        3. Click Find.
5. Click Continue.
6. (Optional) Add Drive label conditions:
   1. Click Add Label Condition.
   2. Select a label titleclick Add.
   3. Select the values.
   4. (Optional) Create another label condition.
   5. Click Continue.

7. Choose how long to keep files:

   • To permanently retain files covered by this rule, select Indefinitely.
   • To purge files after a set time:
     1. Select Retention period.
     2. Enter the number of days of the retention period, from 1 to 36,500.
     3. Select when to start the file's retention period:
        1. To start the retention based on an event related to a file, click Start of retention periodselect Date created, Date modified, or Date moved to trash. 
        2. To start the retention based on a Drive label’s date field condition (see Step 6), click Start of retention period select Date set on label date field. Then select a date field. The retention period for an item begins at the value of that date field. 
     4. Select what to do with files when the retention period ends:
        • Purge only permanently deleted items—This option purges expired items that are emptied from the Trash folder. Users don’t have access to them and don’t expect to keep them. To purge only files that are already emptied from the users' Trash, choose this option.
        • Purge all items in users’ Drives, including items that aren’t permanently deleted—This option purges all expired items, including items in users’ Drive folders. It might purge items users expect to keep. To purge all files, including files that aren't deleted, choose this option.
          Warning: Vault allows Drive to immediately purge files that exceed the retention period when you submit the rule. The purged data can include data that users expect to keep. Do not proceed to the next step until you’re sure the rule is configured correctly.
8. Click Create. If you set a retention period, check the confirmation box and click Accept.

Create the default Drive retention rule

The default retention rule applies to files in Drive, including files in shared drives that aren't covered by a custom rule or a hold.

1. Sign in to vault.google.com.
2. Click Retention. The list of default rules opens.
3. Click Drive .

4. Choose how long to keep files:

   • To permanently retain files covered by this rule, select Indefinitely.
   • To purge files after a set time:
     1. Select Retention period.
     2. Enter the number of days of the retention period, from 1 to 36,500.
     3. Select when to start the file's retention period:
        1. To start the retention based on an event related to a file, click Start of retention periodselect Date created, Date modified, or Date moved to trash. 
        2. To start the retention based on a Drive label’s date field condition (see Step 6), click Start of retention period select Date set on label date field. Then select a date field. The retention period for an item begins at the value of that date field. 
     4. Select what to do with files when the retention period ends:
        • Purge only permanently deleted items—This option purges expired items that are emptied from the Trash folder. Users don’t have access to them and don’t expect to keep them. To purge only files that are already emptied from the users' Trash, choose this option.
        • Purge all items in users’ Drives, including items that aren’t permanently deleted—This option purges all expired items, including items in users’ Drive folders. It might purge items users expect to keep. To purge all files, including files that aren't deleted, choose this option.
          Warning: Vault allows Drive to immediately purge files that exceed the retention period when you submit the rule. The purged data can include data that users expect to keep. Do not proceed to the next step until you’re sure the rule is configured correctly.
5. Click Create. Check the confirmation box and click Accept.

Delete a custom Drive retention rule

1. Sign in to vault.google.com.
2. Click RetentionCustom Rules.
3. Point to the custom ruleclick Delete.
   Warning: Data covered by this rule that isn’t protected by holds or other retention rules might be immediately purged.
4. To confirm, click Delete again.

Delete a default Drive retention rule

1. Sign in to vault.google.com.
2. Click Retention. The list of default rules opens.
3. Point to Drive click Delete.
   Warning: Data covered by this rule that isn’t protected by holds or other retention rules might be immediately purged.
4. To confirm, click Delete again.