Year-End Digital Cleanup 2026: Photos, Files, Passwords and Subscriptions Checklist

Apple Support and Google Photos Help both say deleted photos stay recoverable for 30 days, and Microsoft Support says OneDrive keeps deleted files for 30 days on a personal account and 93 days on a work or school account (pages checked Nov. 4, 2026). That window should set the pace of a year-end digital cleanup. Below: how long each service keeps what you delete, a four-week plan for Dec. 1 to 31, 2026 that ends before Identity Theft Awareness Week, and a free one-page checklist with a source on every line.

How long do deleted photos and files stay recoverable?

Service	What the company says	Source
iPhone and iPad photos	Deleted photos and videos go to Recently Deleted for 30 days, then are permanently deleted	Apple Support, updated Mar. 31, 2026
Google Photos	Deleted photos and videos stay in the trash for 30 days before they are permanently deleted	Google Photos Help
OneDrive, personal account	Files or folders deleted within the last 30 days can be restored	Microsoft Support
OneDrive, work or school account	Files or folders deleted within the last 93 days can be restored	Microsoft Support
Google data archive (Takeout)	The archive expires in about 7 days and can be downloaded 5 times; creating it can take from a few minutes to a few days	Google Account Help

With iCloud Photos, Apple says a deletion also happens on every other device signed in with the same Apple Account, so a clean-up on a phone reaches the tablet too. Storage limits matter when you decide what to keep: Google says each Google Account comes with up to 15 GB shared by Gmail, Drive and Photos, and Microsoft’s quotas page refers to a free 5 GB storage plan.

What is our four-week December plan?

The weeks below are our suggestion, not an official schedule. The order puts security and backups before any deleting. Photos come last, so a photo deleted in the final week stays recoverable into January (30 days is our arithmetic on the companies’ window).

Dates	Focus	Steps
Dec. 1-7	Accounts and devices	Multifactor authentication, longer passwords, updates
Dec. 8-14	Subscriptions and inbox	List, calendar, cancel, dispute
Dec. 15-21	Backups	3-2-1 copies and a restore test
Dec. 22-31	Photos and files	Delete duplicates, check storage, download archives

The plan ends on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2026, well before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Identity Theft Awareness Week 2027 runs, Jan. 25 to 29. Mark both on the December 2026 printable calendar and the January 2027 printable calendar, and see our January 2027 dates list.

Which security steps come first?

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has archived its Secure Our World pages, so we cite them as CISA’s Secure Our World guidance, not as new advice.

• Passwords: CISA says to use “at least 16 characters” and that creating and storing strong passwords with a password manager is “one of the easiest ways to protect ourselves.” We do not rank password managers.
• Multifactor authentication (MFA): CISA says to turn on MFA for every account or app that offers it, and to check whether your email accounts, banks, healthcare providers and other important accounts offer it.
• Updates: CISA says to install updates and turn on automatic updates, “especially for our web browsers and antivirus software.”
• Inbox cleanup: if you suspect phishing, CISA says to delete the message and not click any link or attachment, “including any ‘unsubscribe’ link.”

How do you cancel subscriptions before the new year?

The FTC’s consumer advice on free trials and auto-renewals says to make a note on your calendar to remind you to cancel before the trial ends. It says the terms should explain how and when to cancel if you do not want to be charged after the trial, and it tells shoppers to look for boxes that are already checked for you. If you are charged without your consent and the company will not refund the money, the FTC says to dispute the charge.

On the rules: the FTC’s 2024 click-to-cancel rule was vacated, and on Mar. 11, 2026 the FTC sought public comment on options “including retaining the current Rule, adopting provisions of the vacated 2024 Rule or some other provisions.” We found no new rule as of Nov. 4, 2026, so check each service’s own cancel steps.

How should you back up before you delete?

CISA’s back-up page is written for businesses, and its 3-2-1 rule works at home too: 3 copies of important files, 2 different types of storage media (like a hard drive and the cloud) and 1 copy stored off-site. The page also says to test the backup procedure so data can be restored both fully and partially. Do that test before the Dec. 22-31 photo clean-up.

What is in the free printable?

The one-page checklist groups 14 tick-box lines under Accounts and passwords, Devices, Subscriptions, Backups, Photos and files, and the next date, each with the source named on the line. The week assignments are ours.