What is Azure artifact maximum retention period?

Question

What is Azure artifact maximum retention period?

Thibault, Vincent 60

Is 4000 days the maximun limit for the retention of Azure artifacts in a "feed"?

See messaged displayed in RED in PMT-2638_azure_artifact_max_retention_4000.png

Is this 4000 days limit configurable somehow ?

Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T17:31:26.18+00:00

Where is the 4000 limit shown in the WEB UI message comming from ?
Pravallika KV 15,795 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-06T17:32:26.1966667+00:00
Hi @Thibault, Vincent ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

When you configure retention policies for an Artifacts Feed, the UI restricts the retention duration to a maximum of 4000 days.

This limit applies to retention settings such as:

Delete packages older than X days

Keep only the last N versions

Retention policies for package versions

The warning message you see appears because the value entered exceeds the allowed maximum.

The 4000-day limit is hard-coded by Microsoft in Azure DevOps and cannot be increased through:

Feed settings

Organization policies

REST API

YAML configuration

If you need to keep artifacts longer than this:

Disable automatic deletion, do not enable time-based retention.

Promote important packages to a view (for example @Release) so they are protected from cleanup.

Archive artifacts externally Export them to:

Azure Blob Storage

Azure DevOps Pipeline Artifacts

another long-term storage system.
Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T18:44:39.03+00:00

Hi @Pravallika KV ,

If I understand correctly, not enabling time-based retention in @Release VIEW of a FEED, retention will be infinite for all artifacts in this @Release VIEW, while other artifacts only found in @local would be subject to time-based retention.

Is my understanding correct ?
Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T20:26:33.0166667+00:00

Thanks. This is the information I was looking for.

Answer accepted by question author

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Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T17:31:26.18+00:00

Where is the 4000 limit shown in the WEB UI message comming from ?
Pravallika KV 15,795 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-06T17:32:26.1966667+00:00

Hi @Thibault, Vincent ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

When you configure retention policies for an Artifacts Feed, the UI restricts the retention duration to a maximum of 4000 days.

This limit applies to retention settings such as:

Delete packages older than X days

Keep only the last N versions

Retention policies for package versions

The warning message you see appears because the value entered exceeds the allowed maximum.

The 4000-day limit is hard-coded by Microsoft in Azure DevOps and cannot be increased through:

Feed settings

Organization policies

REST API

YAML configuration

If you need to keep artifacts longer than this:

Disable automatic deletion, do not enable time-based retention.

Promote important packages to a view (for example @Release) so they are protected from cleanup.

Archive artifacts externally Export them to:

Azure Blob Storage

Azure DevOps Pipeline Artifacts

another long-term storage system.
Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T18:44:39.03+00:00

Hi @Pravallika KV ,

If I understand correctly, not enabling time-based retention in @Release VIEW of a FEED, retention will be infinite for all artifacts in this @Release VIEW, while other artifacts only found in @local would be subject to time-based retention.

Is my understanding correct ?
Thibault, Vincent 60 Reputation points

2026-03-06T20:26:33.0166667+00:00

Thanks. This is the information I was looking for.

Answer 1

Hi @Thibault, Vincent ,

When you configure retention policies for an Artifacts Feed, the UI restricts the retention duration to a maximum of 4000 days.

This limit applies to retention settings such as:

Delete packages older than X days
Keep only the last N versions
Retention policies for package versions

The warning message you see appears because the value entered exceeds the allowed maximum.

If I understand correctly, not enabling time-based retention in @Release VIEW of a FEED, retention will be infinite for all artifacts in this @Release VIEW, while other artifacts only found in @local would be subject to time-based retention.

Yes, that's correct.

If time-based retention is not enabled for the @Release view, artifacts promoted into a view (like @Release) won't get deleted by your feed’s retention policy and thus can live indefinitely until you manually remove them. Packages that remain only in the default (@local) view are subject to the feed’s retention rules i.e., “delete after X days” rule you’ve set.

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What is Azure artifact maximum retention period?

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