Automatically Delete Recordings After a Set Time
Keep your transcripts and summaries but let Wave remove the audio itself, either one session at a time or automatically once a recording reaches an age you choose.
If you'd rather not keep the audio of your recordings forever, Wave can remove it and leave everything else in place. You can do it for one session at a time, or set Audio retention so Wave removes the audio from recordings once they pass an age you choose. It's off by default.
What's kept and what's removed
Only the recording itself goes: the audio file (or video file, for a video session) plus any trim backups Wave kept of it. The session stays in your library with everything else:
- Transcript, summary, and action items
- Wave AI chat history
- Photos and PDFs attached to the session
- Title, date, folders, favorites, and speaker names
- Share links, PDF and Word exports
The session page shows Audio removed with the date and the reason (by you, or by your retention policy) where the player normally sits.
Deleting the audio from one session
Open the session's menu, next to Delete session, and choose Delete audio…. Wave asks you to confirm: The transcript and summary stay. Playback, re-transcribe, trim, and audio download won't be available. This can't be undone. Tap Delete audio and it's gone right away.
The option doesn't appear while a session is still processing, on sessions whose audio is already removed, or on YouTube and podcast imports (Wave doesn't store their audio).
Turning on automatic deletion
Settings → Privacy & data → Audio retention
Pick one of six options:
- Keep audio forever (the default)
- Delete after 1 day
- Delete after 7 days
- Delete after 30 days
- Delete after 90 days
- Delete after 1 year
A recording's age counts from its recording date, the date shown in your library. Before the setting takes effect, Wave tells you how many of your existing sessions are already older than the window you picked, and asks you to confirm with Turn on. The setting is per account, so it applies to recordings from every device.
Nothing is removed for 24 hours. Automatic deletion starts 24 hours after you turn it on, and any later change to the setting restarts that 24-hour wait. If you picked the wrong window, change it or switch back to Keep audio forever before then and nothing is lost. After that, Wave checks every hour and removes audio as recordings pass the window.
What stops working once the audio is gone
- Playing the recording, following along in the transcript, and tapping a line to jump to it
- Re-transcribing or changing the transcription language
- Trimming, splitting, and undoing an earlier trim
- Playing a speaker's clip and enrolling them in Voice ID from this session
- Downloading or exporting the audio
- Continuing the recording
- Sharing with audio: shares from this session go out without it, and a public link you already published stops playing it
Removing audio can't be undone, by you or by Wave support. It doesn't go to Recently Deleted.
Which sessions the automatic sweep skips
- Sessions still processing. Wave waits until transcription and the summary are finished.
- Sessions without a transcript, such as an upload that failed, so you can still recover or re-transcribe them. Recordings where Wave found no speech at all are cleaned up normally.
- Sessions in Recently Deleted. Those are removed entirely after 30 days anyway.
FAQ
No. The voice samples Wave saved when you enrolled someone in Voice ID are stored separately and aren't touched, so speakers you've already enrolled keep being recognized in new recordings.
Yes. Wave deletes the audio files from its storage as soon as the audio is removed, and there is no way to get them back from Wave afterwards.
They're unaffected. Anything that already left Wave, such as a downloaded audio file or an emailed summary, is yours to manage.
The window counts from the recording date, so moving a session's date further back can bring it inside the window.
Was this article helpful?
Still need help?