--- title: How much history Relic keeps | Relic Help description: History is a rolling window of the things you copied and never kept. Here is how big that window is, how to change it, and how to empty it. canonical: https://relic.space/help/history-limit source: https://relic.space/llms.txt --- Backups and data # How much history Relic keeps History is a rolling window of the things you copied and never kept. Here is how big that window is, how to change it, and how to empty it. Updated 10 September 2026 · Windows, Mac, Linux ## [History and kept items](#what-history-is) Relic holds two kinds of thing. **History** is everything you copied and never did anything else with. It is a rolling window: new copies come in at one end and old ones fall out the other. **Kept items** are the ones you put in your Vault, by pressing the keep shortcut, by saving them from the window, or by turning on save everything. They never fall out, whatever the window is set to and however old they get. So the answer to "how long does Relic keep this?" is: forever if you kept it, and until the window rolls past it if you did not. [The Vault](https://relic.space/help/the-vault) covers how to keep something. ## [Keep recent history](#keep-recent-history) The size of the window is the [Settings › Vault and storage › Keep recent history](https://relic.space/help/settings-vault-and-storage#keep-recent) row. Keep recent history Automatically remove the oldest history items beyond this limit. Saved (Vault) items are never auto-deleted. Settings › Vault and storage › Keep recent history: choice of Keep everything, 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000; default 1,000. What the row offers depends on how this computer is set up. Signed in to a paid plan you pick the number yourself, anywhere from 100 to 10,000\. Signed in to the free plan the number is fixed by the plan and the row shows it instead of a choice. Not signed in at all, you can also pick **Keep everything** and nothing is ever removed for age. Whatever you pick, the count is of history items only. The row says so: saved items are never auto-deleted. ## [On the free plan](#on-the-free-plan) The free plan keeps the 100 most recent history items (500 for accounts made before October 20, 2026). The row reads "Your plan keeps the 100 most recent history items. Saved (Vault) items are never auto-deleted." As you copy new things the oldest ones drop out of view, on this computer and on every device you sync with. Text items that drop out are not thrown away. They are held back, and they come straight back if you move to a paid plan, on the next sync after you do. An item with a picture or a file attached is removed properly when it drops out, because the bytes are the part that costs real space. If a screenshot matters to you, keep it before the window rolls past it. If you have ever paid An account that has been on a paid plan is never trimmed this way, even if it goes back to the free plan later. The window only bounds accounts that have always been free. [Plans and limits](https://relic.space/help/plans-and-limits) has the rest of the numbers. ## [On a computer that is not signed in](#not-signed-in) A computer with no Relic account keeps whatever fits on its disk, so the row starts at **Keep everything** and a second control appears under it. Remove history older than Only shown when this computer is not signed in to sync. Settings › Vault and storage › Remove history older than: choice of Never, 30 days, 90 days, 1 year; default Never. **Remove history older than** is an age limit rather than a count: _Never_, _30 days_, _90 days_ or _1 year_. It works alongside the count, so you can hold 1,000 items and still drop anything older than 90 days. Both leave kept items alone. Once you sign in to sync, this control goes away and your plan sets the window. ## [Clearing it all](#clear-all-history) [Clear all history](https://relic.space/help/settings-vault-and-storage#clear-history) is the manual version of the same idea. The row shows how many history items you have and a **Clear…** button. Clear all history Deletes every unsaved history item on this device and your synced devices. Saved (Vault) items are kept. Settings › Vault and storage › Clear all history: button: Clear…. Relic asks first, and tells you exactly what is about to go: A confirm dialog headed Delete 1,240 history items? The text says everything not saved to your Vault is deleted from this device and, as it syncs, from your other devices, and that this cannot be undone. There is a Cancel button and a red Delete history button. The confirmation, on a computer that is signed in to sync. * Kept items are not touched. * On a computer signed in to sync, the deletion travels to your other devices as they sync. * When it is done Relic says how many went, for example _Cleared 1,240 items._ To empty history without losing anything you care about, keep the items you want first. To stop history filling up at all, turn capture off for a while instead. The rest of the pane is on [Settings: Vault and storage](https://relic.space/help/settings-vault-and-storage), and [Space and where files live](https://relic.space/help/storage) covers the space these items take. Related [The VaultKeep and organise](https://relic.space/help/the-vault)[Space and where files liveBackups and data](https://relic.space/help/storage)[Delete and undoKeep and organise](https://relic.space/help/delete-and-undo)[Settings: Vault and storageSettings reference](https://relic.space/help/settings-vault-and-storage)