Hello everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me understand what's happening with my PlayHT project files, as I've just encountered a pretty disruptive issue that I think others should be aware of. I've been using PlayHT to generate voiceovers for a series of internal training dashboards I'm building in Tableau. Over the last two months, I created and organized about 15 audio clips, categorizing them neatly into projects by department (Sales, Support, etc.) within the PlayHT dashboard.
This morning, I logged in to grab the latest clip, and all the audio files from my first project are just... gone. The project folder is still there, but it's empty. After checking my account activity and reaching out to support, I was informed that "project audio files are retained for 30 days" as per their data management policy, and this is considered normal system behavior.
I was completely unaware of this limitation, and I don't recall it being prominently highlighted during the creation or export process. This has created a significant workflow problem for me, as I now have to regenerate and re-time all those audio segments for our onboarding materials.
Has anyone else run into this? I'm trying to piece together the specifics of their data retention policy, as it's crucial for planning ongoing projects. My main questions are:
* **Is the 30-day retention period universal for all plan tiers, or does it differ?** I'm currently on a Pro plan.
* **Does the timer start from the file's creation date or from the last time it was accessed/modified?**
* **What is the best practice for permanently archiving files you intend to use long-term?** Is the only safe method to immediately download every `.mp3` to a local drive or cloud storage after generation?
To help others compare, here's a quick rundown of how I've seen similar features handled in other platforms I use:
| Platform | Audio Asset Retention | Default Backup Method | Notes |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **PlayHT** | *Appears to be 30 days (from my experience)* | Manual download after generation | Project structure remains, but files are purged. |
| **Generic Cloud BI Tool (e.g., Power BI/Tableau Cloud)** | Indefinite, tied to workspace/user license | Automatic with save/publish | Datasets & reports are persisted unless manually deleted. |
| **Looker** | Indefinite, governed by database connections | Managed at source data level | Explores/Looks depend on the underlying database. |
This experience has really underscored the importance of understanding a tool's data governance model, not just its output quality. For my self-serve analytics projects, I need to know assets are reliably available for reference and reuse.
I'd appreciate any insights from the community, especially if you've developed a reliable workflow to work around this. A methodical approach to asset management is key for projects like mine!
~jenny
Let the data speak.