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Cloud Backup file retention policy and non-updated files on hard drive

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I'm on True Image 2021, which is my first cloud backup solution (but have been using Acronis for years).

If, in the cloud, without changing the defaults, 20 recent versions will be stored. So, I have the baseline full backup, followed by 20 incremental versions. 

What actually happens now? In other words, if automatically the first incremental is deleted when incremental #21 is created, what happens to a file that was created as part of incremental #1, but never modified since then? Is it now gone forever from the cloud backup, or does True Image 2021 see what was in #1, see if it's still on the drive, not in any other incremental and make sure it's in the new #21 incremental (basically, does TI 2021 keep a file list as part of the "scanning" process)? Same for incremental #2, #3...?

I'm just concerned about files created as part of an incremental, that are then deleted as part of the automated cleanup process for new incrementals to be created.

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Michael, the way that Cloud backups work is not the same as the Incremental process used for your local backups, and with versioning in the Cloud, you should not lose any data.

The initial backup to the Cloud is always a full image, i.e. all the selected source data.

Subsequent backups are only of changed data and versioning is applied at a block or file level depending on the type of backup being performed.  The intention here is to minimise the volume of data that will be uploaded and only send changed blocks of data or file versions.

If you use the default number of versions for your backup of 20 then unless you delete a file that was present in either the initial full image or added in a subsequent upload version, then the file will continue to be present in the cloud data, and even deleted files will still be available until the number of versions present no longer store a copy that deleted file.

You can change both the number of versions and the length of time for data to be retained.