Data Retention and Submission Archive

How long does Formbold keep my submissions?

As long as you tell it to. Each form has its own Data retention setting. Open the form, go to Settings, and find it under Advanced Options.

You can pick one of these:

Check what your form is set to before you assume anything. The forms we looked at were on 3 years.

Which retention period should I pick?

Keep data only as long as you need it. A contact form that feeds a CRM or Google Sheets rarely needs more than 30 days in Formbold, because the real record lives elsewhere. A job application form might need 6 months or a year.

If you have a privacy policy that promises a deletion window, set the form to match it. It's an easy thing to get right, and it's awkward to explain if it's wrong.

Export what you need before you shorten the retention period. Older entries are deleted once they fall outside the new window, and you can't undo that.

What does Submission Archive do?

Submission Archive sits in the General card on the Settings tab. It controls whether Formbold stores submissions at all.

With it on, every entry is saved and shows up in Submissions. With it off, Formbold still sends each submission to your email and connected apps, but doesn't keep a copy.

The dashboard's own warning matters here: if Submission Archive is off, file uploads are not stored. If your form takes attachments, like CVs or invoices, leave the archive on.

When should I turn Submission Archive off?

When you never want the data to sit on Formbold. A common case is a form that sends straight to your own server through a webhook, where your database is the only copy you want.

Test it first. Send one submission with the archive off and make sure it arrives everywhere it should, because there's no copy in the dashboard to fall back on.