How long data is kept
Each project has a single age — the date of the oldest file it contains. Retention timers count from that age, so adding or editing a file later in a project does not reset the clock.
| File type | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
Raw sequencing & imaging data — FASTQ, TIFF images (Visium H&E, fluorescence, etc.), Xenium output bundles, methylation arrays (.idat) |
5 years from the project's start date |
Oxford Nanopore raw reads — .fast5 / .pod5 |
90 days from the project's start date |
Analysis results — everything inside a project's analysis/ folder (Cell Ranger output, alignment BAMs, variant calls, intermediate files) |
30 days from the project's start date |
Some files are always kept — Snakemake driver files (Snakefile, *.yaml, *.sh, etc.), Cell Ranger per-sample summary HTML pages, and the full contents of Xenium output bundles. These live as long as the project does so pipelines can be re-run.
When you'll hear from us
You'll get an email 90 days, 30 days, and 7 days before raw sequencing/imaging or Nanopore files are removed. You'll get an email 7 days before analysis files (Cell Ranger outputs, etc.) are removed.
Who gets the email
Everyone you've granted access to your lab's GSR data will receive the retention email — typically the PI, postdocs, grad students, and anyone else you've added to your lab's permissions. The same list that reaches you when GSR grants data access is the one we use for these warnings.
What to do if you want to keep a file
Several options, easiest first:
- Copy it out. Move it to your own storage (your home directory, a lab DartFS allocation, an external drive) before the deadline.
- Ask for an extension on specific files. Reply to the retention email and list the paths you want kept. The admin will exclude them from the next removal cycle.
- Opt out an entire project. Contact the GSR admin directly.
After a deadline passes
If you don't act, files first move into a recovery-area folder (.retention_trash/) for 14 days. During those 14 days an admin can put anything back if you realize you missed something. After 14 days the files are removed permanently.
First-time rollout
We're just starting to roll this policy out, and it applies retroactively to all data already on DartFS. If any of your existing files are already past their retention window, you'll receive a one-time rollout email listing the projects affected. You have 30 days from that email to move anything you want to preserve; after that, those files enter the normal removal cycle described above.
Questions
Reply to any of these notification emails, or contact Fred Kolling (GSR admin) directly at fred.w.kolling.iv@dartmouth.edu.