JungleDisk Retention Guide

Retention, within the context of Jungle Disk, refers to the policy controlling how long previous versions of changed files and deleted files are kept on an Online Disk. This retention policy applies differently depending on whether the data is stored in a Network Drive or a Backup Vault.

The general default retention for Jungle Disk is 95 days for both the Network Drive and the Backup Vault. Older installs may have a default retention of 60 days.

If a customer changes their retention policy, either by increasing or decreasing the retention period, this change will affect the account’s billing amount in the next cycle, as increased retention raises the disk size and bill.

1. Backup Vault Retention

The Backup Vault stores encrypted and compressed files and is ideal for large data sets.

• Default Retention: The default retention is 95 days. The default for older Backup Vault installs was 60 days.
• Purpose: Retention governs how often to clear out old data, including previous versions and deleted files. Deleted files are removed or retained according to this policy.
• Indefinite Retention: If the retention period option is unchecked in the Backup Vault settings, old backups will be kept indefinitely, potentially leading to drastically increased charges.
• Policy Changes: It is important to note that the retention period must be adjusted before uploading files to the Backup Vault for the first time. To change the retention policy for data that has already been backed up, the job must be deleted, the data copied to a secure location, and a new vault created and re-uploaded.
• Restoration Window: The retention period determines how far back a user can go to restore previous or deleted versions of files.

2. Network Drive Retention

The Network Drive acts as a mapped drive for cloud storage, allowing for live access, editing, and sharing. It is explicitly not a backup but a shareable drive.

• Default Retention: The default retention is 95 days (or 60 days for older installs).
• Versioning Limits: The Network Drive typically keeps previous versions in the ~VersionArchive folder. By default, it stores previous versions of changed and deleted files, but it only keeps up to 10 copies of each file. This means that keeping 10 copies may result in less time than the full retention period.
• Cleanup: Unlike the Backup Vault, the Network Drive has no automatic "cleanups"; once a file is deleted, it is removed permanently after the retention policy has been met.
• Configuration Options: Users can configure retention settings for previous versions under the Network Drive options in the software's Configure menu:
  • Time-Based Limits: Users can set the amount of time that previous versions or deleted files are held before being purged (e.g., "Remove previous versions after [XX] days").
  • Version Limits: Users can set the maximum number of previous versions to keep per file. They can also set a minimum number of versions to keep, which, if enabled, keeps the specified amount of versions indefinitely, overriding the time-based retention setting.
  • Exclusions: Users can specify file size limitations (e.g., files over 5 GB or 100 MB) that should not have previous versions created or should be purged immediately upon deletion. They can also exclude certain file types or files within specified folders from having previous versions created.

3. Simple Backup Retention

Simple Backup is an automated job that stores uncompressed full files on the Network Drive, which can be viewed through Web Access.

• By default, the retention settings for Simple Backups are inherited from the retention settings configured for the Network Drive.
• Users can choose to use customized previous version settings specifically for the Simple Backup job if desired.