I have read in the TOS for the Matrix server that all messages are deleted after one year. If I am talking with someone, does that mean that messages that are older than a year are deleted on my side, or both sides of the conversation? What if the chat is E2EE? If I am using a device that is signed in and has seen old messages, are they removed from that device too?
I assume the part in the TOS refers to an experimental feature of Synapse that allows setting a message retention time. I think what it does is to set a deleted flag in the DAG and maybe overwrite the internal storage…but deleting anything on Matrix is surprisingly difficult and this experimental feature comes with a big disclaimer in the config file.
However, the ever increasing storage requirements are a serious issue for large public Matrix servers, having resulted in some of them shutting down permanently and the tchncs one had to do expensive hardware upgrades solely because of that.
storage requirements are a serious issue for large public Matrix servers
Should I still consider joining tchncs then? I don’t really want to overload their servers. I’m only in a few rooms with little activity, though.
Its not a big deal to have one more user.
Cant answer your question, but i know you can export your entire chatlog for a room in plain text or html if you are concerned about losing your chats.
Edit: Just checked my client and i still have messages older than 1 year ago, although i dont have the encryption keys for those for some reason but they are not “deleted”.
I think that’s for messages your client hasn’t received from the server yet. If you don’t login for a long time but keep getting messages that’s how long they’ll keep them.
Once all your clients have the message the server doesn’t need to keep it any longer. I’d expect them to discard it immediately after that, but I guess they don’t
That’s not how Matrix works. Matrix runs an internal DAG that stores all messages basically permanently.
