# How to delete a device’s location history retained in Hexnode UEM?

**Delete Location History** is a management action in Hexnode UEM that allows IT administrators to remove recorded geographical coordinates of managed devices, ensuring employee privacy and compliance with data retention policies.

**Why Manage Location History?**
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While tracking is essential for asset recovery and **Geofencing**, retaining sensitive location data indefinitely can pose security risks. Deleting this history is often required during device disenrollment, ownership changes (e.g., from Corporate to Personal), or to align with regional privacy regulations (like GDPR).

- **Privacy Compliance:** Protects sensitive employee movement data.
- **Security Risk Mitigation:** Reduces the impact of data breaches by removing historical logs.
- **Inventory Cleanup:** Ensures that only relevant, recent data is maintained in the portal.

**Method 1: Manual Deletion of Location History**
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Administrators can manually trigger the deletion of location logs for individual devices or in bulk across the entire fleet.

1. Log in to your **Hexnode UEM portal**.
2. Navigate to the **Manage** tab.
3. Select the checkboxes for the target devices.
4. Click the **Actions** drop-down menu and under **Others**, select **Delete Location History**.
5. Click **Continue** on the confirmation prompt.
6. Click **Confirm** to execute the deletion.

**Method 2: Automatic Location History Deletion**
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To automate data hygiene, Hexnode allows administrators to define a specific retention period. Once the data exceeds this age, it is purged automatically from the system.

1. Navigate to the **Admin** tab.
2. Under **General Settings**, locate **Location Tracking**.
3. Click the **Location history retention** drop-down menu.
4. Choose one of the following retention periods: 
    - 1 day
    - 7 days
    - 15 days
    - 30 days
    - 60 days
    - 90 days

![Set retention period for location history of devices](https:2023/09/Location-history-retention-period.png "Location history retention period")

**Where is the Data Removed From?**
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Upon execution of the manual action or the expiration of the retention period, location data is permanently purged from:

- **Location History Reports:** Found under the **Reports** tab.
- **Location History Sub-tab:** Located within the individual **Device Summary** page.

**Troubleshooting Guides**
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ProblemPotential Root CauseResolutionLocation data still visible after deletionPortal cache or sync delay.Refresh your browser or navigate away and back to the **Location History** tab. If using automatic retention, ensure the **Admin** settings were saved correctly.“Delete Location History” option is missingInsufficient Admin permissions.Verify that your administrative role has the “Modify” or “Delete” permissions enabled for reports and device actions.New locations are appearing immediatelyActive **Location Tracking** policy.Deletion only removes history. If an **Enable Location Tracking** policy is active, the device will continue to report new coordinates based on its sync interval.Automatic deletion didn’t occur for 120-day old logsRetention period set to “None” or a longer duration.Check **Admin > General Settings > Location Tracking** and ensure the retention period is set to a value (e.g., 90 days) that covers your desired purge window.**Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)**
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### **Is the deleted location history recoverable?**

No. Once the **Delete Location History** action is confirmed or the retention period expires, the data is permanently removed from the Hexnode database and cannot be restored.

### **Does deleting history stop future tracking?**

No. Deleting history only removes past logs. To stop future tracking, you must remove or modify the **Location Tracking** policy associated with the device.

### **Can different retention periods be set for different groups?**

Currently, the **Location history retention** setting in the **Admin** tab is a global configuration that applies to all enrolled devices in the portal.

### **What is the default retention period?**

If not configured, Hexnode may retain data indefinitely or based on your specific subscription plan. It is highly recommended to set a manual retention period (e.g., 30 days) to ensure compliance.