Privacy and Security Delete Recall Snapshots in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to manually delete all or specific Recall snapshots for your account in Windows 11.

Recall is an experience exclusive to Copilot+ PCs that will help you easily find and remember things you've seen using natural language. To help provide you with that "photographic" memory, you can opt in to saving snapshots of your screen periodically. You can quickly search your snapshots to find things on your Copilot+ PC. For example, you can search for content you've seen in apps, websites, images, and documents. Recall doesn't record audio or save continuous video. It also doesn’t save game video when Game Mode is active on platforms that support it.

You're always in control of what's saved as a snapshot. You can disable saving snapshots, pause temporarily, filter apps and websites, and delete your snapshots at any time.

To help maintain your privacy, Recall processes your content locally on the Copilot+ PC and securely stores it only on your device. Snapshots are encrypted by Device Encryption or BitLocker, which are enabled by default on Windows 11. Recall doesn't share snapshots with other users that are signed into Windows on the same device. Microsoft can't access or view the snapshots.

You can choose how long snapshots can be saved on your device. In the Maximum storage duration for snapshots setting, select either 30, 60, 90, 180 days, or unlimited. Once snapshots reach the age limit, they are deleted from the device. If you don’t set the maximum storage duration, then snapshots aren’t deleted until the Maximum storage for snapshots limit is reached, and then the oldest snapshots are deleted first.

If you discover a snapshot that you want to delete, you can choose to Delete the snapshot. If you realize that the snapshot contains a website or app that you haven't filtered yet, you have an option to Delete all the snapshots that contain the selected website or app. You will be informed of how many snapshots from that web site or app will be deleted. If you proceed, all the snapshots are deleted in bulk. If you'd like, you can add the website or app to the filter list once the delete is finished.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.3915 (24H2), You work across so many apps, sites, and documents it can be hard to remember where you saw something you want to get back to. Recall (preview) saves you time by offering an entirely new way to search for things you’ve seen or done on your PC securely. With the AI capabilities of Copilot+ PCs, it’s now possible to quickly find and get back to any app, website, image, or document just by describing its content. To use Recall, you will need to opt-in to save snapshots, which are images of your activity, and enroll in Windows Hello to confirm your presence so only you can access your snapshots. You are always in control of what snapshots are saved and can pause saving snapshots at any time. As you use your Copilot+ PC throughout the day working on documents or presentations, taking video calls, and context switching across activities, Recall will take regular snapshots and help you find things faster and easier. When you need to find or get back to something you’ve done previously, open Recall and authenticate with Windows Hello. When you’ve found what you were looking for, you can reopen the application, website, or document, or use Click to Do to act on any image or text in the snapshot you found.

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1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on Recall & snapshots on the right side under "Windows permissions". (see screenshot below)



3 Do step 4 (all) or step 5 (specific) below for which screenshots you want to delete.












6 Click/tap on Delete to confirm. (see screenshots below)


7 If prompted by Windows Security, click/tap on OK to approve. (see screenshot below)


8 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Recall (Win+J).

2 When prompted by Windows Security, click/tap on OK to approve. (see screenshot below)

Every time you launch Recall or change Recall settings, you’ll be asked to confirm that it’s you using Windows Hello. Your saved snapshots and any associated information are encrypted so that only you can access them. Recall takes advantage of just in time decryption protected by Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS). Recall requires you to confirm your identity before it launches and before you can access your snapshots, so you’ll also need to enroll into Windows Hello if you haven’t already enrolled. Your search index database for Recall is also encrypted. By default, Recall supports Windows Hello sign-in with your face, fingerprint, or PIN.

3 Click/tap on the Timeline button on the left side. (see screenshot below)


4 Select a snapshot on the timeline at the bottom you want to delete. (see screenshot below)

Your timeline in Recall is broken up into segments, which are the blocks of time that snapshots of your screen are taken while you were using your PC. You can hover over your timeline to review your activity in a preview window. Selecting the location on the timeline or selecting the preview window loads the snapshot where you can interact with the content.

You can click/tap on the Go to the latest snapshot button on the right side.

You can also click/tap on the Back (previous) and Forward (next) buttons on either side of the snapshot to scroll through your timeline of snapshots.

5 Click/tap on the Delete (trash can) button at the bottom below the snapshot, and perform an available action below you want: (see screenshot below)

• Click/tap on Delete all from <app> to delete all snapshots of the current app (ex: "Edge").
• Click/tap on Delete all from <website> to delete all snapshots of this website URL (ex: "elevenforum.com").
• Click/tap on Delete snapshot to only delete this specific snapshot.

6 Click/tap on the Delete to confirm. (see screenshots below)

If you selected a Delete all option in step 4, you will see a number (ex: "1") on the Delete button to indicate how many snapshots will be deleted.

7 If you selected a Delete all option in step 4, click/tap on Close. (see screenshot below)

Under Filter app or website, you can click/tap on the Add or Remove button for this snapshot's website (ex: "elevenforum.com") and/or app (ex: "Edge") for the app filter and/or website filter list to exclude from snapshots if wanted.

That's it,
Shawn Brink