Before you cancel Jira.

What happens to the data when you cancel Jira

1. When a paid subscription (Standard, Premium or Enterprise) is canceled, Atlassian stops renewals, the site stays usable for 15 more days after the paid period ends, and then the site is deactivated and its data enters a retention period; if payment is not received within 15 days, the site is likewise unsubscribed and deactivated.

   Plans: Standard, Premium, Enterprise (Atlassian's cancel page says Free plans are deactivated immediately)

   Atlassian’s words

   If we don’t receive payment within 15 days, you will be unsubscribed and your site will be deactivated, which means your app enters a data retention period. ... If you cancel your app subscription, we won’t process any further subscription renewals. After your subscription period ends, you’ll be able to access your site for 15 more days. Your site will then be deactivated, and your apps will enter a data retention period.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

2. Atlassian's storage page says the retention period depends on the plan and billing system, and its table lists 15 days for trials and 60 days for Free, Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans; reactivating within that period restores the data, and after it the data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Atlassian's reactivation page gives free subscriptions only 15 days, so the Free figure is disputed between Atlassian's own pages.

   Plans: Trials: 15 days; Free, Standard, Premium, Enterprise: 60 days

   Atlassian’s words

   The length of your app’s data retention period will depend on the plan and billing system. At the end of this data retention period, your app’s data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. ... Plan Data retention period Trials 15 days Free, Standard, Premium or Enterprise plan 60 days ... If you reactivate your subscription within the data retention period, your app's data and preferences will be restored.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

3. Atlassian's reactivation page, in its section for the improved billing experience, says data is kept 15 days after deactivation for free subscriptions and 60 days for paid ones and then permanently deleted; its section for the original billing experience says that once a site is deactivated you have two weeks to pay the outstanding quote or contact Atlassian before the data is permanently deleted. Atlassian's storage page instead lists 60 days for the Free plan.

   Plans: Free: 15 days; paid: 60 days (conflicts with the storage page, which lists 60 days for Free)

   Atlassian’s words

   Your app’s data is retained for 15 days (for free subscriptions) or 60 days (for paid subscriptions) after deactivation. If you reactive your subscription within this data retention period, your app's data and preferences will be restored. At the end of the data retention period, your app’s data will be permanently deleted and can’t be recovered.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

4. Deactivating a Free plan subscription takes effect immediately.

   Plans: Free

   Atlassian’s words

   Subscriptions on the Free plan will be deactivated immediately.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

5. Atlassian can deactivate a Free plan app for inactivity and then permanently deletes its data soon after, with notice sent first.

   Plans: Free

   Atlassian’s words

   Atlassian reserves the right to deactivate your Free Cloud app’s data (e.g. Jira and Confluence) due to inactivity. Any data associated with this Free Cloud app will be permanently deleted soon after. We will send notifications prior to any Free Cloud app deactivation and data deletion.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

6. On termination, Atlassian deletes the data after 15 days for evaluation sites or 60 days for paid sites; the data might remain in Atlassian's encrypted backups for up to 90 days, and any deleted data restored within that period is promptly deleted again.

   Plans: evaluation sites: 15 days; paid sites: 60 days

   Atlassian’s words

   Upon termination or at your request, Atlassian deletes your data (including migration data) after a specified period (15 days for evaluation sites or 60 days for paid sites). The data might remain in our encrypted backups for up to 90 days according to our retention policy. If a restore is needed within this period, any deleted data is promptly re-deleted after restoration.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

7. When Jira is removed from an Atlassian app subscription, unsubscribing from every Jira app on the site deletes the Jira data immediately; keeping at least one Jira app (for example Jira Service Management) keeps the Jira data.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   If you unsubscribe from one Jira app (e.g. Jira) and retain another (e.g. Jira Service Management), your Jira data will be retained. If you unsubscribe from all Jira apps on your site, your Jira data will be deleted immediately.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

Who can export what, by plan

1. A Jira site backup is created with Backup manager and covers work items and their fields, boards and sprints, users and groups, comments, attachments if selected, space configuration and Advanced Roadmaps.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   You can export the following data to backup your Jira Cloud site: Jira work items and field content (including system and custom fields) Board and Sprint Data Users and user group settings Comments Media files including media attachments, avatars, logos, and custom template icons (if selected) Space configuration data (including workflows, global permissions, schemes, screens, custom field configuration, work types, and board configuration) Advanced Roadmaps ... In the IMPORT AND EXPORT section, select Backup manager. Under Backup for cloud, select Create backup for cloud.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

2. The Jira backup leaves out automation flows, third-party apps and their data, Assets for Jira Service Management, Opsgenie-powered features and Jira Product Discovery views, insights and votes.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Data that can’t be exported: Automation flows Third-party apps and app data Jira Service Management features powered by Opsgenie, (including all content accessed through the Opsgenie URL, as well as alerts and on-call schedules) Assets for Jira Service Management App access settings (you’ll need to add users to groups for permissions to apply). Views configurations, insights, and vote fields for Jira Product Discovery.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

3. Any search result list can be exported to CSV, Google Sheets, Word, Excel, XML or form data, and the Word export carries the description, comments and all other work item data.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   After performing a search, you can export your search results to another format like: CSV Google Sheets Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel XML Form data ... The export will include the Description, Comments, and all other work item data, not just the work item fields that are currently configured in the List view.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

4. Atlassian Backup and Restore can only be run by people who are both organization admins and app admins, can run daily on a schedule, and its backups cannot be downloaded into your own storage.

   Plans: Premium, Enterprise (paid add-on, per the Backup and Restore overview page)

   Atlassian’s words

   Who can back up and restore? You need to have organization admin and app admin permissions to backup and restore data. ... Can I run backups daily? Yes, you can run backups daily. You can schedule them to run automatically. ... Can I download the backup into my storage? No, currently you can’t download a backup into your storage.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

What can stop or limit an export

1. A backup can be made at any time, but one that includes attachments, avatars or logos needs 48 hours between backups.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   You can backup your Jira data at any time. However, if you include attachments, avatars, and/or logos, you'll need to allow 48 hours between backups.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

2. Atlassian strongly recommends keeping an export within 25 GB of total data, and since January 22, 2026 Backup Manager only restores backups that are 30 days old or less.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   To ensure successful exports and imports, we strongly recommend you stay within the following limits: Total data size: 25 GB ... Starting Jan 22, 2026, Backup Manager will limit restores from backups to those that are 30 days old or less.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

3. A CSV export from the issue navigator handles up to 10,000 work items at a time.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   In Jira Cloud, exporting up to 10,000 work items using the asynchronous Export CSV feature from the Issue Navigator is supported.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

4. Atlassian recommends exporting around 150 work items at a time to Word.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Select Export Word. The export will include the Description, Comments, and all other work item data, not just the work item fields that are currently configured in the List view. We recommend that you export around 150 work items at a time.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

5. Organization admins can block people from exporting data in particular app instances or at certain classification levels.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Organization admins can block exports Your organization may choose to prevent people from exporting data in particular app instances or with certain classification levels.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

6. Backup and Restore add-on backups expire on the 31st day and cannot be restored after that, and the add-on can only be bought on Premium or Enterprise plans.

   Plans: Premium, Enterprise (paid add-on)

   Atlassian’s words

   You can purchase the Atlassian Backup and Restore add-on only for the following apps if you have a Premium or Enterprise plan. ... Backups are stored in Atlassian-owned storage for 30 days, and expire on the 31st day. Once a backup expires, you can’t restore it.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

What the export looks like

1. A Jira Cloud backup is a zip file whose database content sits in two XML files, activeobjects.xml and entities.xml, with attachments, avatars and logos in their own folders.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Once you have generated and unzipped a backup file, you should have an output similar to the following: ... Note that database data is stored in both activeobjects.xml and entities.xml. work item attachments, user avatars and space logos are stored in corresponding directories.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

2. Search exports come out as CSV files (all fields, current fields or filter fields), an XML file, a Word document, or an XLSX file for form data.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   To export all fields or currently visible fields as a CSV (comma-separated values) file: ... Export Excel CSV (all fields) Export Excel CSV (current fields) If you're using a filter: Export Excel CSV (filter fields) ... Select Export Word. ... Select Export XML. ... Select Export XLSX (form data).

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

What is deleted while you still pay

1. Jira spaces moved to the trash, with their work items, components, attachments and versions, are permanently deleted after 60 days.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Spaces along with their work items, components, attachments, and versions will be available in trash for 60 days, after which they will be permanently deleted.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

2. A deleted Jira work item is removed permanently at once and cannot be recovered without a backup or export made before the deletion.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   When a work item is deleted, it's permanently removed from your Jira site. The audit log will show a deletion event, including the user who performed the deletion and the date and time. Deleted items can't be recovered unless you have a backup or export from before the deletion.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

3. Atlassian keeps its own daily database backups for 30 days but cannot use them to roll back changes such as deleted issues, projects or sites, and it recommends making regular backups of your own.

   Plans: all

   Atlassian’s words

   Automated Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) backups are generated daily and retained for 30 days to allow for point-in-time data restoration. ... We cannot use our RDS backups to roll back changes. These include changes such as fields overwritten using scripts, or deleted issues, projects, or sites. ... To avoid data loss, we recommend making regular backups.

   support.atlassian.com, read October 29, 2026

What Atlassian’s pages do not say

• Atlassian's pages disagree on free plans: the data storage page lists 60 days of retention after deactivation, the reactivation page says 15 days for free subscriptions, and the cloud migration FAQ names only evaluation and paid sites. Until Atlassian settles it, plan on 15 days for a Free site.
• No Atlassian page we read says how long a Backup manager download stays available.
• The Jira export page does not name the role needed to create a site backup.