# Recording storage and log levels

When your plan includes them, Blink records every screen a technician watches (**Session recording**), keeps a transcript of every remote terminal (**Terminal history**) and keeps a timeline and log of every session (**Session timeline**). These are part of Blink Pro. See [Blink Core and Blink Pro](/configure/plans-and-limits/#blink-core-and-blink-pro). This page covers how long they are kept and who can reach them. To find and play recordings, see [Use Blink](/use/).

If your plan changes, recordings, transcripts and session logs you already have stay available: people with the permissions below can still play, download and delete them, and the retention settings on this page still apply to them. A session started without recording or a timeline stays without one.

## Who can see recordings and logs

Access to recordings and logs comes from roles. The permissions are:

- **View recordings**, **Download recordings** and **Delete recordings**, each for **Own** sessions (the ones the person started) or **Any** session they can reach.
- **View logs**, for session and device logs and the timeline.
- **Change log levels**, to change an agent's live log levels.

Deleting recordings removes a session's video and audio; the session and its log stay. To delete a whole ended Support session with its recording and log, a person needs **Delete support sessions**.

See [Roles and permissions](/configure/roles/) to build a role with exactly these.

## How long recordings are kept

### On Blink Cloud

Recording storage limits are part of your Blink Cloud service. Contact [IZT](https://izt.app) to change them.

### On your own server

By default, a self-hosted Blink server keeps recordings forever. You can limit them with two server start-up options:

| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| `-recording-retention-days` | Finished recordings older than this many days are deleted. The check runs daily. `0` (the default) keeps them forever. |
| `-recording-quota-mb` | The most storage, in MiB, that recordings and terminal transcripts may use. Over it, the oldest finished recordings are deleted. `0` (the default) means no limit. |

Add the options to the command that starts your Blink server and restart it. See [Install](/install/) for how your server is started.

Plan for about 1 GB of storage per hour of recording, per monitor watched. To work out how much disk space you need, see [Plan storage for recordings](/install/on-premises-server/#plan-storage-for-recordings).

:::caution
Deleted recordings can't be recovered. If you need recordings for compliance, download them before they reach the retention limit.
:::

## How long session logs are kept

Session and device logs are kept for:

- **30 days** for records at Info level and above.
- **3 days** for Debug and Trace records.

On your own server, you can change these with the `-log-retention` and `-log-debug-retention` start-up options, as a duration such as `720h`. `0` keeps records forever. A change applies to new records only.

Records written while [diagnostic mode](/troubleshooting/diagnostic-mode/) is on are kept as long as Info records, whatever their level.

## Change an agent's log levels

When IZT support or your own team needs more detail to diagnose a problem, you can turn up the logging of one agent without touching the customer's computer. To turn it up for every session and device at once, use [diagnostic mode](/troubleshooting/diagnostic-mode/). You need the **Change log levels** permission.

You can do this for:

- **An Access device**: on the device's details, select **Log levels**.
- **A live session**: on the session's log page, select **Log levels**. You can't change levels after the session has ended.

In the **Log levels** dialog:

1. Choose a preset: **Normal**, **Debug all**, **Media**, **Input**, **Backstage** or **Install**. Or set the **Default level** and the level of individual components yourself.
2. For a device, choose **Revert after**: **1 hour**, **24 hours** (the default), **7 days** or **Never**.
3. Select **Apply**.

The dialog shows the **Current** levels, and for a device, when they revert. Choose **Normal** to go back to the usual level.

:::tip
Records below a component's level are not stored, but the agent still keeps recent detailed records in memory and sends them along when an error occurs. You often get enough detail without turning levels up.
:::

:::caution
**Debug all** can produce a large volume of records. Remember that Debug records are only kept for 3 days.
:::