Project Archiving and Data Retention (revised v2)

Wordbee Translator manages project data in stages. Completed projects are archived, archived and canceled projects are offloaded to cold storage, and projects inactive for longer than your data retention period are permanently deleted. Every deletion is announced to your platform administrators by two warning emails, and the archive stays available for download for at least 30 days.

This article explains each stage and how to manage your project data, including setting a shorter retention period for a client company and collecting archives through the API.

Purpose of project archiving

The primary purpose of project archiving is to make sure people and processes operate smoothly. This solution aims at:

• Managing storage space efficiently.

• Optimizing system performance.

• Organizing project lists.

• Ensuring transparency and compliance.

• Supporting business analytics.

• Facilitating training and reference for new team members.

The project lifecycle at a glance

Archiving and offloading projects

Best practices prior to archival

Before archiving and moving a project to cold storage, make sure any relevant information in the project is kept online for later reference:

1. Run the consolidation of the Project Memory into a master memory, so it can be further referenced in other projects. Otherwise, the translations in that project can't be reused once the memory is offloaded.

2. Make sure the files and deliverables are available in the related order. When the client portal is enabled, the translations are handed over to the end client in the respective order.

Both points above can be addressed in the existing project management processes (which can be automated or run manually). Learn more about the options available in the following articles:

Consolidation of Project Memories to Master

Workflow template (Automation options for orders)

Automatic archival

The automation in place for archival and offloading runs at regular intervals. Here is where to find the details for your platform and subscription plan:

• Inside the License and Usage page, you will find all the details related to the File Storage.

• Project archival and offloading can occur automatically if they meet specific conditions (see listed criteria).

Criteria for automatic archival and offloading

1. Automatic archival: a project in completed status is set to archived once it has been completed for longer than the archival period of your SLA plan (from one month to a full year).

2. Automatic offloading: a project in archived or canceled status is moved to cold storage once it has been in that status for longer than the offloading period of your SLA plan (from one week to one month).

3. Changing the status of an archived or canceled project, for example reopening it, stops the automatic offloading.

Manual archival

Administrative users have the flexibility to manually trigger the archival and offloading of individual projects. Here's how:

1. Navigate to the Project details page.

2. In the 'More' section, locate the dedicated option for 'Project archival'.

3. Click on 'Offload data' to initiate the archival process.

Please note that, after offloading, project files are no longer available online, but many project sections remain accessible. Archival and offloading actions are recorded in the project's status history for reference.

Managing projects

Listing offloaded projects

To determine which projects are offloaded and which remain online, users can utilize filters on the main Project page. These filters are also useful for locating specific files within a project, regardless of their offloaded status.

Searching files within offloaded projects

The filtering options in Wordbee Translator make it easy to search for files within offloaded projects, enhancing efficiency in retrieving essential data.

Restoring offloaded projects

To bring an offloaded project back online, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the 'Project Details' page and open the 'More' section or click on the 'Click to continue' link in the red banner.

2. Click the option 'Click to restore data'.

3. The project will be restored entirely to the online platform, making files and deliverables accessible once again.

Data retention and deletion

In addition to archiving and offloading, Wordbee Translator enforces a data retention policy based on your subscription plan. After a project has been inactive beyond the allowed retention period, it is permanently deleted from the platform. This process is fully automated and irreversible once completed. Offloaded projects are included: moving a project to cold storage does not stop the retention period.

How data retention works

Each subscription plan defines a maximum retention period, measured from the project's last used date:

A client company can have a shorter period than the one shown here, never a longer one.

When a project has been inactive longer than the allowed period, the system schedules it for deletion. The deletion process follows these steps:

1. The system identifies projects whose last used date exceeds the retention period.

2. A first warning email is sent to your platform administrators. It announces the deletion date, at least 28 days later.

3. A second warning email is sent about four weeks later, with the same deletion date.

4. On or shortly after the deletion date, each project is saved as a zip archive and then permanently deleted. A project that was used in the meantime is not deleted.

5. A deletion email is sent with the list of deleted projects and a link to the Archived Projects page, where you can download the archived data for at least 30 days.

Setting a shorter retention period for a client company

By default, every project follows the retention period of your platform. If a client needs its data deleted sooner, you can give that client company a shorter period. All other client companies keep the platform period.

Follow these steps to set a retention period for a client company:

1. Open the client company and click Edit.

2. Go to the Data retention tab.

3. In Retention period, choose a period. The list offers Platform default (the period of your platform) and whole years from 1 up to that period.

4. Click Save.

If some of the client's projects have already been inactive for longer than the new period, a message tells you how many will enter the deletion cycle before you confirm. These projects receive the usual two warning emails before deletion. To remove the shorter period, choose Platform default again.

What triggers the last used date

The following actions update a project's last used date and reset the retention countdown:

• Marking a file online or offline, or adding revised files

• Adding or changing a job

• Adding or changing an invoice

• Creating or changing an order linked to the project

• Changing the project status (except changing to Archived)

• Restoring the project from cold storage

• Flex transactions

Opening or viewing a project, or editing its details without changing its status, does not update the last used date.

How you are notified

Three email notifications are sent to platform administrators.

Downloading archived project data

When a project is deleted, it is first archived as a zip file. You can download these files from the Archived Projects tab under My Company.

• Archives of offloaded projects are listed at the top level.

• Archives of deleted projects are stored in a folder named after the deletion date (for example 2026-10-20).

The page lists all archived project files with their file name (using the format p-[project ID].zip), file size, and creation date. Each archive contains the project's files, translations, and project details. Use the Download all button to download all files at once, or select individual files.

Collecting archives of deleted projects through the API

If you want your own systems to collect the archives automatically, you can use the Wordbee Translator API instead of downloading them from the Archived Projects page. Both calls require an administrator.

Follow these steps to collect archives through the API:

1. Get the list of deleted projects from the archival events list (admin/archival/projects/list). Filter the event field on deleted (project deleted by data retention). The value retention_warning lists the warnings.

2. Download the archive of each deleted project with one call per project: GET admin/archival/projects/{pid}/archive.

• The download only works for projects deleted by data retention. For any other project, the call returns an error.

• These downloads do not count toward your API usage limits, and an interrupted download can be resumed from where it stopped.

• Archives remain available for at least 30 days after the deletion, until the scheduled clean-up removes them, so we recommend collecting them daily.

What gets deleted

When a project reaches the end of its retention period and is permanently deleted, the following data is removed:

• Projects and jobs, including all dependent database records

• Search index data (segments and translations)

• All associated files

If another project uses the deleted project as a project memory, that link is removed.

Example

For a platform with a 2-year retention period:

If the project is used at any time before the deletion, it is not deleted and the retention period starts again.

Tracking the last used date

The Last used date column can be added to the project list to monitor when each project was last active. You can also use it as a filter to find projects approaching their retention limit.

To add the column, use the column configuration options in the project list view.

Benefits of project archiving

With project archival, offloading, and data retention, users benefit from:

1. Managing storage space
   Efficiently manage available space in the platform, with the option to manually recover offloaded projects as needed. Additional storage can be purchased if required.

2. Optimizing system performance
   Maximize system performance for daily activities by optimizing the use of online storage resources.

3. Organizing project lists
   Maintain an up-to-date overview of your project list by archiving old projects and simplifying project management.

4. Ensuring transparency and compliance
   Comply with data retention policies and ISO standards. Access to archived files and data supports accountability for decisions made during project lifecycles.

5. Supporting business analytics
   Keep essential data online, enabling the business analytics module to retrieve information for long-term reporting and analysis.

6. Facilitating training and reference
   Utilize archived project material for training purposes or as a point of reference, aiding new projects and team members in understanding project specifics.

Learn More

• Project Management: Learn about managing projects, including status changes and workflows.

• Consolidation of Project Memories to Master: Consolidate project translations into a master memory before archiving.

• Workflow template (Automation options for orders): Configure automated workflows for orders, including post-completion actions.