QUESTION FOR SELLERS (saved files)

[mjaninea]

Hello co-sellers!

I am a graphic designer and, as you can imagine, one work could mean having to save 5-6 files. And today I decided to delete the old files related to works I had delivered 2 months ago. So, I was wondering, how do you manage the files of your works/deliveries? Do you keep them? Do you delete them after tot ___ period of time?

[thatwordchick]

I spring for Google Drive storage every month - it’s not a lot of money, I can deduct the cost, and you never know when you can use a snippet of an old piece of work (privately, as clients have purchased publishing rights usually) to showcase your strengths in a certain niche. I’ve never deleted anything I’ve produced on Fiverr 🙂

[english_voice]

I’m sure some buyers would be delighted to think you might keep their files forever, just in case. I’m also sure some buyers would be horrified to think you might keep their files beyond a reasonable period of time - maybe only for the duration that an order is active for example. European GDPR regulations could come into play as well.

Maybe this is something that you could specify in your gigs? For example, “I will keep your source files for up to three months. They will then be deleted.” Or “If you wish me to keep your source files as the basis for any future projects, please let me know”.

When I did voiceovers, I kept my original recordings for ages before eventually deleting them. I kept them thinking a client might at some point want a remix, or to update a phone number or a tag line for example. Not once though did I have to use any of the original source files after the delivery of an order. In my experience, no client has ever come back to me to request working on an old project.

As far as I know, your delivered work remains available to download long after an order has been completed. I’ve just gone back over a year - and can download files from this date back in 2019 for example. So in one sense, Fiverr itself provides a backup solution - both the buyer and seller can download the delivered work and any files included as message attachments from long ago.

[thatwordchick]

I’m sure some buyers would be delighted to think you might keep their files forever, just in case. I’m also sure some buyers would be horrified to think you might keep their files beyond a reasonable period of time - maybe only for the duration that an order is active for example. European GDPR regulations could come into play as well.

Maybe this is something that you could specify in your gigs? For example, “I will keep your source files for up to three months. They will then be deleted.” Or “If you wish me to keep your source files as the basis for any future projects, please let me know”.

When I did voiceovers, I kept my original recordings for ages before eventually deleting them. I kept them thinking a client might at some point want a remix, or to update a phone number or a tag line for example. Not once though did I have to use any of the original source files after the delivery of an order. In my experience, no client has ever come back to me to request working on an old project.

As far as I know, your delivered work remains available to download long after an order has been completed. I’ve just gone back over a year - and can download files from this date back in 2019 for example. So in one sense, Fiverr itself provides a backup solution - both the buyer and seller can download the delivered work and any files included as message attachments from long ago.

You make an excellent point with the GDPR! I hadn’t considered that. I’ve had at least 4 or 5 clients come back to me this year, looking for source files (writing) that I’d produced for them months prior…something got corrupted, they lost the file, etc. I also like having my body of work accessible to me, I’d probably keep it privately as printed or on an external HD if I could do that and still align with GDPR if I wasn’t American.

[mjaninea]

Thank you both @thatwordchick and @english_voice for replying! I appreciate your points! Actually, I’m always hesitant in deleting completed works for customers, because I also think they might need them in the future. Maybe with what you do, you only need to save one file per work. But in the design category, I usually need to save a single design in different formats (ex. PSD, PNG, PDF, JPEG…) and it kinda annoys me to see all of those files related to one old project in my laptop or driver, idky. I also believe I might never need the files anymore, but you never know! And I keep them “Just in case”… but I would really love to get rid of them too 😅

[alyonagrapie]

I often have to deal with hundreds of even thousands of files per order. I try to warn buyers that I’ll be keeping their files for a month both on my hard drive and in a cloud. I’ve been meaning to add this to my gig’s FAQ, but keep forgetting.
Normally I keep the files for longer though. I can also make exceptions for files that exceed attachments limitations and keep them for a long time. But if I managed to squeeze everything into delivery, as far as I’m concerned, it’s fiverr’s resposibility to keep them safe for months/years/forever, not mine.
If a buyer is specifically concerned about confidentiality, I’ll be deleting their files soon after they confirm there would be no revisions and they successfully downloaded the files.
If it is a repeat buyer with ongoing projects, I am more likely to keep their files for months, even if there are no follow ups on this particular order.

[greystorm2]

For my voiceover files, I keep the raw file and the edited file, and when I archive everything for the year, I save them all to an external HD. However, it’s not fool-proof, I’ve run into a glitch or two, so for the new year I’ll probably go ahead and pony up for either more google drive space or more dropbox space. Or both, because you can never have enough backups. 😃

Also, I like automating things as much as I possibly can, and like to run If This Then That applets. That comes in handy the more backups you set up.

[visualstudios]

For one time projects, I usually delete shortly after order completion. For long term clients, I keep a month or two of backlog in addition to materials I will still need for the future.

In video editing I need to keep deleting old stuff constantly, there’s no (realistically priced) backup system that would work for the amount of data I need to go through.

[humanissocial]

I’m sure some buyers would be delighted to think you might keep their files forever, just in case. I’m also sure some buyers would be horrified to think you might keep their files beyond a reasonable period of time - maybe only for the duration that an order is active for example. European GDPR regulations could come into play as well.

Maybe this is something that you could specify in your gigs? For example, “I will keep your source files for up to three months. They will then be deleted.” Or “If you wish me to keep your source files as the basis for any future projects, please let me know”.

When I did voiceovers, I kept my original recordings for ages before eventually deleting them. I kept them thinking a client might at some point want a remix, or to update a phone number or a tag line for example. Not once though did I have to use any of the original source files after the delivery of an order. In my experience, no client has ever come back to me to request working on an old project.

As far as I know, your delivered work remains available to download long after an order has been completed. I’ve just gone back over a year - and can download files from this date back in 2019 for example. So in one sense, Fiverr itself provides a backup solution - both the buyer and seller can download the delivered work and any files included as message attachments from long ago.

I see it as a security risk, personally.

[ducktheunicorn]

If I need to grab the files I delivered, I go back to the previous order and download the files.

[jamescott]

I’ve been recording voiceovers on Fiverr for ten years now, and I still have every single recording and edit. Storage is cheap.

[marketer29]

You make an excellent point with the GDPR! I hadn’t considered that. I’ve had at least 4 or 5 clients come back to me this year, looking for source files (writing) that I’d produced for them months prior…something got corrupted, they lost the file, etc. I also like having my body of work accessible to me, I’d probably keep it privately as printed or on an external HD if I could do that and still align with GDPR if I wasn’t American.

Thank you both @thatwordchick and @english_voice for replying! I appreciate your points! Actually, I’m always hesitant in deleting completed works for customers, because I also think they might need them in the future. Maybe with what you do, you only need to save one file per work. But in the design category, I usually need to save a single design in different formats (ex. PSD, PNG, PDF, JPEG…) and it kinda annoys me to see all of those files related to one old project in my laptop or driver, idky. I also believe I might never need the files anymore, but you never know! And I keep them “Just in case”… but I would really love to get rid of them too 😅

[maishamahmood27]

I think deleting old files is somewhat risky. You can just save them in the cloud like in Google Drive or Dropbox. That is what I do. The rest depends on you. Happy freelancing!