Retention and Trash
Sixty screenshots a week at around 1.5 MB each is roughly 4.5 GB a year. Rules exist so that stays manageable.
Nothing is ever deleted automatically. A rule proposes a set and waits for you.
Retention rules
Settings → Storage & Retention. Two kinds:
- Archive older screenshots — moves captures older than N days out of the main library while keeping them findable
- Delete older screenshots — sends them to the app’s Trash
Set the age, enable the rule, save it. Check Rules Now runs it immediately instead of waiting.
The review sweep
When a rule matches captures, they queue for review rather than being acted on. Settings shows Needs attention with a Review… button.
The review lists every affected capture with a checkbox. Uncheck anything you want to keep — the invoice you still need, the reference screenshot you forgot you’d tagged — and only checked items are changed.
This step is not skippable, and that is the point.
Trash
Removed captures go to an in-app Trash and stay recoverable for a grace period you control.
- Restore puts a capture back in the library with its tags and recognized text intact
- Delete removes it permanently
- The grace period is configurable in Settings → Storage & Retention
Emptying the Trash is the only operation in the app that destroys a screenshot without a further confirmation, because you have already given one by then.
Near-duplicate review
Four almost-identical screenshots taken seconds apart is the classic way a library turns into the mess it was meant to replace.
Screenshot Inbox groups them using a perceptual hash of the image plus how close together they were taken, then presents the group for review:
- Keep Newest keeps the most recent, merges the tags from the others, and sends the rest to Trash — recoverable, as always
- Not Duplicates is remembered, so that group is never proposed again
Nothing is removed without you choosing it.
Getting a screenshot back
- Check the Trash — most recently removed items are there
- If a retention rule archived it, it’s still in your library and searchable
- If the Trash was emptied, check your backups — see Where your files live
Didn't answer it? Write tosupport@screenshotinbox.com — one person reads it, and questions that land here twice become a new page.