Opening Advanced settings

Go to Settings → Organization settings → Advanced. This is where you set how long data is kept, export your data and delete data. Only owners and admins can use these settings; other team members can only view them.

Retention period

The GDPR asks you not to keep personal data longer than necessary. With the retention period you decide how long conversations stay in Bugalou.

• Choose Never (keep everything), or 6, 12, 24 or 36 months.
• Every night, conversations without activity for longer than that period are permanently deleted, including their messages and the files Bugalou stored for them (such as media you sent and images in emails).
• Contacts are kept. Only the conversations are removed.
• By default the retention period is Never, so nothing is deleted until you switch it on.
• When you switch it on or shorten it, Bugalou asks you to confirm first. Deletion happens the following night.

The retention period works the same on every plan.

Exporting data

Download a copy of your data, for example as a backup, for a customer's GDPR request or before you delete anything.

• Export conversations: a JSON file with all conversations, including customer details, channel, status, ticket number and every message.
• Export contacts: a CSV file you can open in Excel, with name, email, phone, Instagram, tags, custom fields, notes and opt-ins.
• Export all data (ZIP): both files together in one ZIP.

For a large workspace the download can take a few minutes. Keep the page open until it has finished.

Delete old conversations

Deletes all conversations without activity for more than a year in one go, including messages and stored files. You are asked to confirm first. This cannot be undone.

Delete all conversations

Deletes all conversations with their messages and stored files, regardless of age. Contacts, automations and settings stay.

Delete all organization data

Deletes all conversations, messages, contacts and automations. Your account, team, connected channels, settings and subscription stay. Type DELETE to confirm.

Important

• All delete actions are permanent and cannot be reversed.
• Export your data first if you still need it.
• Bugalou doesn't store inbound WhatsApp media and email attachments itself; those stay with Meta or your email provider.