# Review and expire retained label history

Separate policy adoption, private export and irreversible expiry.

Source: https://help.smartfact.ai/manuals/labels/history-retention

Review edition: 25 October 2026

Roles: owner, supervisor

Owner manages LabelRules history retention. Supervisor can inspect the same page and request its selected-history exports. This product's reviewed expiry is separate from the organisation's [Accounts retention settings](/manuals/accounts/retention-policy), complete site export and closure.

## Read the proposed or adopted policy

Open **Account → History retention**. Read the proposed/adopted policy, the displayed period, what content is affected and the explanations about protected work. Adopting a policy does not itself delete history.

An Owner who has agreed the policy can review its acknowledgement and choose the adoption control. Recheck the resulting adopted state. An operational hold, restore or unresolved print still needs its own procedure; policy adoption does not settle it.

## Review one exact source history

Choose the intended item under **Retained source history**. Match its source reference and revision before acting. The review distinguishes **Protected history**, **Eligible for reviewed expiry** and **Expired history**. Read the reasons and earliest expiry, then expand **Exact records and files**.

An age alone is not eligibility. If protection or the selected content has changed, obtain a fresh review rather than reusing an earlier page. Never select a different source history to dispose of the one you intended.

If a private copy is required, a Supervisor uses **Request private history export**, waits for its preparation and verifies the completed download. Recent export links have their own expiry. The Owner's complete site export is a different scope; use [history and exports](/manuals/labels/history-and-exports) to choose the right file.

## Expire only after reviewing permanent loss

The Owner's **Expire reviewed history** control is available only with an adopted policy and an eligible current review. Read the exact records and files again, then acknowledge permanent loss of their content and exact reprint before submitting.

Expiry removes eligible detailed source payloads, label files and print evidence under that reviewed scope. Exact reprint is no longer available for the expired content. It is not an ordinary reversible edit, and a policy change cannot restore that lost content.

Read the resulting state. A refusal caused by changed eligibility, current recovery or stale review needs investigation and another current review where appropriate. Do not repeatedly submit a retained request with edited identities. If the response is lost, inspect the original history and its current expiry evidence before another action.

## Keep the remaining meaning clear

Expired history is not proof that an earlier label never printed. Administrative expiry does not settle uncertain physical output, cancel external effects or authorise a fresh replacement. Preserve the relevant retained identifiers and follow [uncertain output](/manuals/labels/uncertain-output) or the controlled reprint process before the content becomes unavailable.