In our Make the Best of Your Backup blog series, we’ll answer questions and share tips to ensure our customers get the best experience with their Carbonite subscription!

To kick off, we’re addressing a topic we get questions on from both our Home and Business customers, as well as those of you still in trial: "What happens to my backed up data once it’s been deleted it from my computer?"

As an online backup service, Carbonite creates copies of your files and protects them by backing them up in the cloud. But data that’s been deleted from your computer doesn’t have an indefinite shelf life on our servers. If a file that has been deleted hasn’t been restored within the retention period – 30 days for Home subscribers and 60 days for Business – Carbonite assumes the user no longer wants the file and erases the data from our servers.

Accidental file deletion is a common occurrence – and people don’t always immediately realize it’s happened. So it’s smart to periodically check on the status of your files to ensure nothing of value has been sent to the trash can!

You didn't accidentally delete that file, and you want it gone for good ASAP? No problem – both Windows and Mac users can easily queue a file for removal from our servers within 72 hours.

For those customers who have trialed Carbonite, we hold your data on our servers for 15 days after your trial expiration to ensure your backed up data remains protected while you contemplate how to proceed with Carbonite.

Knowing how to keep the files you want, and get rid of the ones you don’t is an integral part of making sure your online backup solution is working for you. If you ever have any questions about the status of your files, reach out to our support team!