The file lifecycle

concept · Reviewed 2026-07-31 · FEAT-0117 GA

Only permanent deletion stops storage charges. Archiving does not. Trashing does not. This page covers why a cleanup may not have changed your storage bill.

The states

State	You can see it	You can restore it	Costs money
Active	Yes	—	Yes
Archived	Yes, in the archived view	Yes	Yes
In trash	Yes, in Trash	Yes, until purged	Yes
Deleted	No	No	No

Three of the four cost money. The file content sits in object storage in every state except the last.

Archiving

Archiving tidies your view. It moves files out of your default lists into an archived view, and you can recover them at any time.

It does not reduce storage cost. Archived content is still stored.

At the job level, archiving does something more aggressive. It moves files to the trash and deletes any CFS data. See archive and delete jobs.

The trash

Deleting a file from the Files tab moves it to Trash. Three actions there:

Action	Effect
Restore	Puts the file back, while it's still in the trash
Delete Forever	Permanent, for the selected files — stops their charges immediately
Empty All	Permanently deletes everything in the trash

Empty All is the one that actually moves your storage bill, and it's irreversible for every file at once. Check what's in there first.

Trashed files are still billed

Storage charges continue for as long as a file exists in any form. Emptying the trash is the step that stops them.

When the trash empties itself

Your workspace admin sets a purge schedule. The default is one day after a file reaches the trash.

One day is short. If there's any chance you'll want a file back, Restore it promptly or download it first, after purge, a recovered job gives you its metadata and nothing else.

Permanent deletion

Permanent deletion is irreversible.

Rescale keeps no backup of your files

Rescale stores one copy of your data. Once a file is deleted (whether you delete it directly or empty it from the trash) it cannot be recovered by you or by Rescale Support.

Download anything you might need before deleting.

Retention settings your admin controls

Workspace admins configure retention under Policies → Platform Settings. Settings apply to all Rescale-managed object storage.

Setting	Default	Effect
Auto-move files to trash after a period	Off (7 days when enabled)	Files are trashed automatically
Auto-purge trashed files after a period	On, 1 day	Trashed files are permanently deleted

Read the two defaults together

Auto-trash is off, so nothing is trashed unless you archive or delete it. Auto-purge is on at one day, so once something is trashed you have about a day to change your mind.

Net effect: nothing disappears on its own, but anything you archive is effectively gone tomorrow.

Retention policy and the Files tab view can disagree

The workspace retention policy operates on individual file records, not on the folder structure. A file archived by policy may not appear in the Trash view on the Files tab even though it has been archived.

If a file is missing but you never deleted it, ask your admin whether retention policy caught it.

Finding what to clean up

The jobs list has a Storage column showing input plus output volume per job. Sort by it and export a CSV to total things up.

Sorting by size beats cleaning up by date. A handful of large DOE studies usually dominates everything else.

Related

• Archive and delete jobs — the job-level workflow
• Browse your files — where the trash and archived views live
• Limits and policies — what happens when you hit a storage cap
• Billing reports — how the storage charge is calculated