Skip to content

How It Works

Content Retention Manager for Confluence handles information governance for Atlassian Confluence in the cloud. Keep what you need and remove what you do not.

  • Retain content for a set or indefinite time.
  • Purge content when it is no longer needed. Once purged, content cannot be recovered by admins or users, satisfying "non-discoverable" requirements for legal and compliance purposes.

Retention Statuses and Discoverability

Each piece of content has one of the following retention statuses, which reflect where it is in its lifecycle:

Retention Status Definition Visibility / Discovery
RETAINED Content is in an active state and available. This means it hasn't expired per your policy or any extensions. Accessible / Discoverable
EXTENDED Content that has a date-based extension applied, setting an explicit future expiration date that overrides the content's retention policy. Accessible / Discoverable
EVERGREEN Content that has an indefinite extension applied. It never expires against a retention policy and will not be automatically removed. Accessible / Discoverable
ENDING Content is nearing the end of its retention period. Determine whether it needs an extension, or can be archived, deleted, or purged. Accessible / Discoverable
ENDED Content has expired against your retention policy. When the retention period ends, content is first deleted (recoverable) and then purged (irrecoverable) after a delay you configure in your Policies. Deleted: Accessible by space admins/Discoverable by space admins; Purged: Not accessible/Not discoverable

As content moves through its retention lifecycle, it may also change state in Confluence. For legal and compliance purposes, content is considered discoverable any time anyone, including an admin, can access or recover it:

Content Status Visibility Discoverable
Current ✅ Anyone with access can view ✅ Yes
Archived ✅ Accessible via direct links to anyone with read access ✅ Yes
Deleted / Trashed ❌ Not generally visible; recoverable by Space and Confluence Admins ✅ Yes
Purged ❌ No longer visible or recoverable. Any trace of the content is removed. ❌ No

Archiving and deleting content are not enough. As long as someone can recover a page or blog post in Confluence, that content remains discoverable for legal and compliance purposes. Actively maintain a policy that accounts for what should and should not be discoverable, in consultation with your Legal, CISO, and HR teams.

Your Data within Content Retention Manager

Content Retention Manager for Confluence runs directly on the Atlassian Forge platform in your Confluence Cloud instance and does not transmit or retain any of your data, content, or user information on any external systems. The app is wholly contained within your Atlassian Cloud instance. When content is purged by Content Retention Manager, it cannot be recovered by users or admins. For more details, see the app's Privacy & Security page on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Before getting started, we recommend you read through our content on Data Retention Policies and Management Best Practices and familiarize yourself with any Data Retention Laws and Regulations your team may need to comply with.

Info

We recommend you review all policies, practices, and processes related to this app with your company's legal representative before you begin enforcing any retention policies. This will help you remain compliant with any applicable laws or regulations.

Before deploying, confirm the following:

  1. You have a defined company retention policy ready to configure in the app.
  2. You have an active Atlassian Confluence instance (Free, Standard, and Premium editions all work with Content Retention Manager).

Warning

We recommend testing Content Retention Manager for Confluence on a test or development instance of your Atlassian Cloud Confluence to get familiar with its functionality and to ensure that any automation you enable performs as expected before deploying to your production instance.

Key Functions of Content Retention Manager

Info

Content Retention Manager for Confluence is available in both Lite and Standard editions. Refer to Edition Comparison for details on their differences.

Function Use
Content Audit View all content and its current retention status. Admins can archive, delete, purge, or extend the retention period of individual or multiple items from this view.
Policies A policy defines the retention period for content.
Default retention A default retention policy applies to all content in the absence of retention rules and extensions.
Retention Rules Retention rules associate policies with entities such as spaces, users, groups, and classification levels. When a rule applies, the associated policy supersedes the Default Retention.
Classification Levels A categorization that defines the information security sensitivity of content.
Classification Rules Classification Rules associate Classification Levels with spaces. When a classification rule applies, the matching level is applied to content within the space and overrides the Default Classification.
Extensions Extensions let content persist beyond its normal retention period, either to a specific date or indefinitely. An extension applies to individual items and overrides all policy settings.
Audit Log The audit log helps you keep track of who updated policies and when. The log also records when content is archived, deleted, or purged by user or automation. The audit log is how you monitor and keep a record of your retention policy in action.
Automation Automation enforces your retention policies on a schedule, archiving, deleting, and purging content automatically.

Accessing Content Retention Manager for Confluence

There are two ways to open Content Retention Manager for Confluence. What you see when you open it depends on your role and which edition is installed.

Apps Menu

In the Confluence left side navigation, select Apps, then select Content Retention Manager.

Confluence Administration

  1. Click the ⚙ icon in the top-right menu bar to open Confluence administration.
  2. On the left navigation pane, scroll down to Settings, then expand Apps.
  3. Select Content Retention Manager.

Who Can Access It

Edition Method Admin Non-admin
Standard Apps menu ✅ ✅
Confluence administration ✅ ❌
Lite Apps menu ✅ ❌
Confluence administration ✅ ❌

What's Next?