As the owner and controller of your data, you can customize and define the retention settings. Default dash cam image and video retention varies based on cloud region and when your organization joined Samsara.
Any changes to your custom data retention policy will delete any production cloud data from the applicable category that is older than the data retention period. You cannot undo the deletion. After this change is made, you will not be able to recover deleted data by setting the retention period to a longer period of time. The data retention period for each data category can be viewed independently from Settings ( ) > Data Retention.
Important
To enable or edit custom data retention settings, your account administrator must provide a written request to Samsara Support.
You can customize your data retention policies for the following categories of data:
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Driver Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR) data relevant to U.S. FMCSA regulations
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Camera data which includes cloud images and video footage. If you enable audio capture, this also includes any accompanying audio data.
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Hours of Service (HOS) data such as electronic logs and violation summaries relevant to driver compliance
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Safety & Speeding data which includes safety events, driver coaching records, speeding events, and associated safety reports
After your retention period for the applicable category is reached, Samsara deletes the data from the Samsara Cloud. The data from the applicable category outside the retention period is purged every night at 12am UTC. After the data is deleted, it is permanently removed from Samsara systems and is not recoverable by you or Samsara. Only data within the retention period is saved and accessible.
Data deleted pursuant to any direct customer action, such as a removal of a vehicle from a dashboard, is also permanently removed from Samsara systems and is not recoverable.
The following table outlines each available data category, describes what is included within that category, and lists the available retention period options you can configure to align with your organization’s data management requirements.
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Setting |
Options |
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DVIR data includes Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports, any DVIR data from the driver record page, and any DVIR alert data. It does not include details of reported defects. If desired, configure your DVIR data retention preference:
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Dash cams typically retain video footage locally depending on a number of factors and configurations. This footage is continuously overwritten in a loop on the device. Dash cam video data is generally only uploaded when there is a safety event or a manual request for certain available footage from the dash cam itself. Custom camera data retention periods apply to camera images, video footage, and accompanying audio data (if enabled) that have been uploaded to the Samsara dashboard. For each trip, camera still images are uploaded to the cloud every few minutes. Video clips with audio data (if enabled), are uploaded to the cloud only in the case of a harsh event or upon video retrieval request. Selecting a custom camera data retention period does not impact data stored locally on the physical camera device. Local storage depends on your dash cam model and any installed accessories. To determine local recording capacity, see Vehicle Camera Storage Capacity. Custom camera data retention periods do not apply to data collected through the optional Camera ID feature, which follows its own retention policy. Camera data retention policies do not impact the Safety Score or Safety Report. While all of the underlying camera image, video, and audio data will be deleted, summary statistics, including the Safety Score, Safety Trends, and count of harsh events, will not be deleted. You can modify these defaults by selecting a custom retention period, subject to applicable regulatory requirements. Configure your data retention preference for dash cam image and video data:
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HOS data includes Hours of Service logs and the Hours of Service Violations Report. Configure your data retention preference for HOS data:
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All safety, speeding, and coaching data beyond the chosen timeframe is automatically deleted on a rolling basis. The affected data includes Safety and Speeding Events, Safety Scores, and related reports such as Risk Factor Reports, Speeding Summaries, and Coaching Timeliness or Effectiveness. It also includes API data (past data will no longer appear in responses), alerts and coachable items linked to deleted events, as well as any dashboards, apps, or portals where deleted data was previously visualized. These visualizations will be updated to reflect the changes. Configure your data retention preference for safety and speeding data:
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[a] If you joined prior to January 26, 2026, the default dash cam image and video retention for US cloud customers is to keep data for as long as you are a customer. |
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