The retention period deletes a form's responses on its own after a while. It keeps you from piling up personal data that is no longer useful: data protection laws ask that data be removed once it is no longer needed, and the dashboard does it for you, every day, without anyone having to remember. At ClÃnica Vitta, in Miami, the "Book your consultation" form keeps responses for 6 months; the intake form, which is part of the client record, is set to Never.
Where to set it
Forms › (form) › Edit tab › "Response retention" card, in the Delete responses after field:
- Never (until I delete them) — the default. Nothing leaves on its own.
- 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or 24 months.
The choice takes effect immediately, without publishing the form: it is a privacy rule, not part of the draft. Each form has its own period.
What is deleted
Once a day, Forms checks each form with a period and permanently deletes everything older than it, counted from the date the response arrived:
- the responses, whether in the list, archived or in the trash;
- each one's signature and consent record;
- incomplete responses, including those from people who used "save and continue later".
With 6 months on "Book your consultation", a response from April 10 is removed on October 11. Deleted responses stop counting toward the form's response limit and, if the form accepts one response per person, whoever answered can answer again.
No trash, no undo
Deletion by retention period does not go through the trash. That is why, once a period is chosen, the card shows a permanent warning: "Every response older than 6 months is permanently deleted, without going to the trash. This cannot be undone." Before shortening the period of a form that already has old responses, export what you need to keep: on the next run, everything past the new period is removed.
The period applies to what is in WiseData Forms. A copy already sent to a Google spreadsheet or to a system through a webhook stays there, and deleting it at the destination is up to you.
Who can change it
Only the account owner: it is the same power as permanently deleting responses. For Editors and Viewers, the card does not show.
Where it is recorded
- Changing the period shows in Logs as "Changed a setting", with the form name and "the response retention period".
- Each run that deleted something becomes a "Retention period applied" record, authored by "System (automatic routine)", with the count: 14 responses and 3 incomplete ones deleted, for example. A run that deleted nothing creates no record.
Where to go next
- Data subject deletion request (Security and privacy collection) — to delete a specific person's data right away.
- Exporting responses to CSV or XLSX (Responses collection) — to keep a copy before shortening the period.
- Organizing responses: status, tags, notes and trash (Responses collection) — the trash and manual deletion.
- Logs (Security and privacy collection) — the history of what the period deleted.
In short: in the "Response retention" card of the Edit tab, the owner chooses to delete the form's responses after 3, 6, 12 or 24 months; every day, responses (including those in the trash), signatures, consent records and incomplete responses older than the period are permanently removed, without the trash, and each run is recorded in Logs.