How Long Does GroupMe Keep Messages, Photos and Files?
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
Short answer
GroupMe's help page says messages are kept until someone deletes them, going back as far as April 2017, while photos, videos and files are available for 5 years. Deleted items drop out of the chat history and out of the export. A direct message can be deleted; a group can't, only left or ended. So export the conversation now, on the GroupMe website, rather than waiting until it matters.
GroupMe keeps a lot for a long time, but not everything, and not forever.
What GroupMe's own page says
- Messages and chat titles: "determined by user", meaning kept until deleted.
- Messages, videos, video messages and pictures, in its words, "are available until they are deleted or dated back to April 2017". Don't count on anything older.
- Videos, pictures and files: available for 5 years, so an old photo may already be gone.
- Chat titles stay until they are deleted or people leave the conversation.
- Items that have been deleted are no longer in your chat history or in an export.
Deleting, archiving and leaving
GroupMe says direct messages can be deleted, while group chats can't: you can only leave or end a group. Either kind can be archived instead, which moves it to an Archive list you open from your profile picture. Export a group before you leave or end it, so you aren't relying on access you no longer have.
Exporting before anything goes
GroupMe's export works only on the website: sign in, click your profile picture, choose Export my data, create an export, pick the data and then the conversations. You can have only one export at a time. It arrives as several zips; the step-by-step version is in exporting GroupMe messages for court.
Reading the export
Verity reads a GroupMe export in your browser, without uploading it: it lists the conversations in the zip, keeps the written messages (GroupMe's own notices, deleted messages and photo-only messages are left out), numbers them in date order and flags patterns. In a group chat it asks whose messages to look at. See analyzing a GroupMe chat and group chat messages as evidence.
Other apps compared: how long apps keep messages.
GroupMe pages cited
Read on November 3, 2026. GroupMe changes its features; check before you rely on them.
- How long are files and data available in GroupMe? (Microsoft Support)
- How do I delete or archive entire chats in GroupMe? (Microsoft Support)
- How do I export my GroupMe data? (Microsoft Support)
This is general information, not legal advice. Verity is not affiliated with GroupMe or Microsoft. Ask your attorney what your case needs.
Have your GroupMe export?
Drop in the zips and read every message numbered in date order. They are read in your browser and are not uploaded.