# How long punch photos are kept

**For:** Admin | Manager | Shift worker
**You'll need:** Nothing to read this. Owner or Admin role to change the period.

Punch photos are deleted automatically. You choose how long they live — anywhere from **1 to 90 days**, with **30 days** as the default — and {{ app_name }} does the rest every night. This article explains what gets deleted, what never does, and how to change the period.

## Change the retention period

1. Open the account dropdown (top-right) and click **'Settings'**.
2. In the right column, find the **'Time clock'** section.
3. In the **'Punch photo retention (days)'** field, enter a number between **1** and **90**.
4. Click **'Save'**.

The field only appears while **'Kiosk verification'** is set to **'PIN + photo'**.

```{tip}
Shorter is safer. Pick the shortest window in which your managers realistically get through their reviews — for most teams that's one or two payroll weeks, not three months. In Switzerland, employee participation attaches to this number specifically, so agree it with your staff rather than picking it alone.
```

## What gets deleted

Every night, {{ app_name }} deletes each company's photos that are older than its retention period — the database entry first, then the stored image. A separate sweep removes any stray image files that no longer have an entry, with a 24-hour grace window so an upload still in flight is never caught. Each run writes an audit record of how many photos it deleted (counts only, never who was in them), so you can show that deletion actually happens.

Deleting your company from {{ app_name }} wipes all of its stored photos.

## What is never deleted

The punch record itself. Clock-in and clock-out times, breaks, and the note that the punch was taken under photo mode all survive as payroll data and as evidence of what your policy was at the time — long after the photo is gone.

Retiring a tablet doesn't delete its photos either; they simply stop showing which device took them.

## Verify it worked

Open a timesheet row older than your retention period. Its **'Punch photos'** section is empty (or the section is gone), while the clock times, breaks, and hours on the row are unchanged.

## Related

- {doc}`turn-on-punch-photos`
- {doc}`review-punch-photos`
- {doc}`punch-photos-at-the-tablet`