Data storage
How long conversations, transcripts and recordings are kept, and whether the assistant may reach outside a shared folder
Settings, Data storage holds two very different things: retention periods, which belong to your account and are enforced on the server, and folder access, which belongs to this device.
Auto-delete conversations
Your conversations are deleted automatically after this period. Available choices are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and never.
The list only offers what your plan and your organization actually allow, so a choice here can never be rejected afterwards. If your organization has set a shorter maximum, the longer options are not offered.
There is no "do not store" option for conversations. A chat history that may not be stored would not be a chat. If your plan does not include this setting, the row says so instead of offering a dropdown that fails.
Keep transcripts
Applies to dictation texts and to meeting transcripts including their summaries. Do not store is available here, unlike for conversations.
Keep audio recordings
Applies to the recordings themselves, so dictation audio and meeting audio.
When this window ends the text stays and the recording is deleted. That is usually what you want: the transcript is what you work with, the audio is what takes up space.
A recording is never kept longer than its transcript. If you shorten the transcript period, the audio period is shortened along with it, and the dropdown stops offering the longer values.
Access outside the folder
Two switches, one for Code and one for Cowork, both off by default. They decide whether that assistant may resolve a path outside the folders you shared with it.
While the switch is off, the assistant stays confined to the shared folders. A path outside them is rejected by the app itself, not merely discouraged in the prompt, whatever the model asks for.
While it is on:
- The assistant can reach any file on this machine.
- A shared folder is still required. The switch widens which paths are reachable, it does not remove the need to share something first.
- Every action that changes something still needs your approval, exactly as before.
- Outside a shared folder you have to approve every single action. "Always allow" only ever applies inside a shared folder.
Each product has its own switch, and each has its own set of shared folders. Turning it on for Code does nothing for Cowork.
Leave these off unless you have a concrete reason. The confinement to a folder is the main thing standing between "the assistant edits my project" and "the assistant edits anything on my disk".
Deleting everything
Deleting your whole conversation history, and deleting your account, live in the browser under Data storage. They are irreversible, which is why they are not one click away inside a window you open with a keyboard shortcut.