Data retention policy

The data retention policy feature is currently in beta testing, and enabled only for a select group of customers.

The data retention policy targets inactive work data for removal and will result in the deletion of inactive data. Users have the opportunity to recover trashed data within the first 30 days if the data is still needed.

Data types affected

The policy currently covers inactive Asana projects and tasks that are not part of projects in Asana.

Duration for inactivity

A task or project will be eligible for trashing followed by deletion after a specified period of inactivity.

What qualifies as inactive?

• None of the following project activities have occurred:
  • Edits to project fields - including updates or edits to name, description, archiving, project team/owner, status updates and messages, etc.,
  • Any activity in tasks within the project - see task activities listed below
  • Project due date is within retention period
• None of the following task activities has occurred:
  • Edits to task fields - including updates or edits to task name, assignee, due date, task dependencies, description, attachments, custom fields, comments, collaborators, likes, etc.,
  • Changes to task associations - including updates or edits to project associations, changes in task section, or new subtasks
  • Other actions - including task duplicated or untrashed
  • Task due date is within retention period

Data deletion

Inactive data will be trashed and then permanently deleted after 30 days if not recovered. The deletion process will run in weekly batches.

Users who will have projects or tasks trashed will receive notifications prior to data being deleted. If users take action in those projects or tasks, those projects or tasks will not be deleted. Users also have the option to restore trashed projects or tasks within 30 days.

User notifications

Impacted users will be notified of any trashed data planned for upcoming deletion on a monthly basis. In order to preserve the data the user must take action against the task or project before it is trashed. After the item is trashed, it can be easily recovered using a hyperlink.

Impacted users will receive an Asana task containing all items planned for deletion. Each item will be hyperlinked in the description. Simply click on the link and select Undelete to restore the trashed item and reset the inactivity.

Please note: The notification will list items to be deleted in the next 30 days. If you wish to reactivate an item, simply take any action (for example; like, comment, etc) on that item. If you revisit the notification task after 30 days, the items will be trashed. In this case, you can click on the link and choose to undelete the item.

Viewing and recovering data

Tasks

Task creators and collaborators can refer to the notification provided or navigate to the search bar and select Deleted tasks and messages in the Saved searches section. You can view and recover trashed tasks from there. 

Projects

Project admins and editors can recover trashed projects. A link to recover the trashed project can be found in the description of the monthly Asana task mentioned under User notifications above.

Impacted users will receive an inbox notification once this task has been created and assigned to them. This task contains a list of all items (tasks/projects) to be deleted. Once a project is trashed, you can reference this task to find the project link. Once you click on a task or project link, you will have the option to Undelete or Permanently delete.