How long do you keep files?
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How long do you keep files from project and such?
What brought this up was I had a client (a large financial consulting firm). Contact me today as they wanted copies of the files from the photo shoot we did for them, back in 2012. I looked I no longer have the files anywhere from their shoot. They were given any of the ones they chose back then (Photo shoots include shooting only, and maybe 3-5 pictures to be finished, you pay for each photo outside of that). They wanted all of them now (I think they forgot they didn't really pay for all of them) I total them that I didn't keep them for that length of time. I then got the whole what kind of company doesn't store them for 10+ years, as apparently they lost the originals they paid for expect what's being used on the website.
I'm curious how long everyone else stores big projects? I usually only keep raw materials, for 1 year or less. I'll keep some deliverables longer.
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Generally not very long at all as holding onto them creates liability. Why store something of no value that could come back to bite you (like in the case of a breach.) Generally only store as long as required for business processes or for legal reasons.
And remind them that SEC storage is only seven years for certain things and most banks will only do three years. And ones I know don't do even a month.
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Forever. I'm trying to persuade my company to put some rules in place. In the meantime, I just keep installing bigger and bigger file servers.
On the other hand, we manufacture heaters that can have a life of over 40 years, so certain information needs to be kept forever.
It's a pretty shitty attitude to lose files and then expect the vendor to bail them out three years after the event though. Client files shouldn't be kept longer than strictly necessary. Companies need a defined retention policy.
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Might be worth adding a media retention policy, I imagine you do the same for video which is far more expensive to store the raw, so add it for photography.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Forever. I'm trying to persuade my company to put some rules in place. In the meantime, I just keep installing bigger and bigger file servers.
On the other hand, we manufacture heaters that can have a life of over 40 years, so certain information needs to be kept forever.
It's a pretty shitty attitude to lose files and then expect the vendor to bail them out three years after the event though. Client files shouldn't be kept longer than strictly necessary. Companies need a defined retention policy.
Same, we have the "you never know what we might need someday" policy in place right now... Granted the file growth is minimal. We have stuff from the early 00's when the company started still.
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For digital files: 5 years (soon I get to start purging all kinds of stuff since starting back here).
For physical files: 7 years
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Why didn't they have a backup?
What kind of company doesn't take backups? -
My last office had some files that as @Minion-Queen stated, was 5 years and 7 years. But HR files, and certain other types were to be kept forever.
I think some of those (keep forever) where Board related.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Might be worth adding a media retention policy, I imagine you do the same for video which is far more expensive to store the raw, so add it for photography.
We don't have a written in stone policy, this kind of thing has to be flexible with the type of work, length and size of project. Generally for most clients it's gone within 30-90 days of final payment (which is when they get the deliverables). Broadcast TV stuff (not commercials) is usually kept a bit longer due to the nature of it.
Photoshoots are done in raw as well, and can easily be a few hundred gigs from one shoot.
