Why have my chats or drafts disappeared?
Find missing chats, lost drafts and deleted projects, and learn how to prevent it next time.
Written By Lina Pridat Hauschild
Last updated 1 day ago
Symptoms
You open Noxtua, and something you expected to find is missing. You may see one of the following:
A chat you used recently is missing from Chats in the sidebar.
The sidebar shows only your four most recent chats, and older ones seem to be gone.
The sidebar says No chats yet, even though you have chatted before.
Text you typed but did not send is no longer in the message box.
When you open a saved link to a chat, you see: This chat was deleted because its retention period ran out.
When you open a project, you see: This project was deleted because it had not been opened for some time or This project no longer exists.
Earlier, the chat showed a marker such as 3 days left, 5 hours left, or Expires soon.
Applies to
Quick fix
Most missing chats are still there, just in another place.
Open the project switcher at the top of the sidebar and select the project the chat belongs to, or Personal for chats outside a project. The sidebar lists only the chats of the space you are in.
In Chats, select All chat history to see every chat in that space, not only the four most recent.
Find the chat by its title. If you renamed it, look for the new name; chats without a name appear as Untitled.
Causes & solutions
The causes are listed from most to least likely.
1. You are in a different project or in the Personal space
How to tell: The project name at the top of the sidebar is not the one where you started the chat.
Select the project switcher at the top of the sidebar.
Type the project name in Filter projects, or select Personal.
Look under Chats or Recent in this project.
Check: The chat appears in the sidebar once you are in the correct space.
2. The chat is older than the four most recent chats
How to tell: The sidebar shows exactly four chats, and the one you want is older.
In the sidebar, open Chats.
Select All chat history. Chats are listed with the most recently active first.
Scroll down; older chats load as you scroll.
Check: The chat appears in the full list and opens when you select it.
3. Your unsent draft was lost when the tab was closed
How to tell: The text was typed but never sent, and you have since closed the browser tab or window.
Noxtua keeps unsent text in the browser tab you typed it in. It survives a page reload, a browser crash, or having to sign in again. It does not survive closing the tab, opening the chat in another tab or browser, or a private window with storage blocked.
Go back to the same browser tab, if it is still open, and reopen the chat.
If the tab is closed, the draft cannot be restored. Please retype your message.
Check: The text is back in the message box of that chat.
4. The chat was deleted due to your organization’s retention period
How to tell: Opening the chat shows: This chat was deleted because its retention period ran out.
Your organization can set chats outside a project to be deleted a fixed time after they were created. Using the chat does not extend this date. While such a chat is open, it shows how much time is left (for example, 3 days left or Expires soon) and the note This chat is deleted for good afterward. Save anything you want to keep.
A deleted chat cannot be recovered by you, your administrator, or support.
To avoid losing other chats:
Check your other chats outside a project for the same marker.
To keep a chat, move it into a project with Add to project. It then follows the project’s retention instead (see section 5).
To keep a copy of a chat, use Export chat.
Ask your administrator what retention period applies to your organization.
Check: A chat you moved into a project no longer shows a deletion date.
5. The project was deleted for inactivity
How to tell: The project is missing from your project switcher, and opening an old link to it shows This project no longer exists.
Your organization can set projects to be deleted when nobody has opened them for some time. Each time someone opens the project, its clock starts again. When the time runs out, the project is marked for deletion: it disappears from your lists but stays recoverable, with all its chats and files, until its deletion date.
To recover it:
Ask an administrator in your organization to go to Settings → Deleted projects.
They find the project, check the recoverable until date, and select Recover.
They confirm with Recover in the Recover project? dialog.
Check: The administrator sees Project recovered. It’s kept until [date], and longer each time it’s opened. The project and its chats are back in your project switcher.
If you see This project was deleted because it had not been opened for some time., the recovery period has ended and the project can no longer be recovered.
A project you deleted yourself skips this recovery period and cannot be recovered.
6. You deleted the chat or project
How to tell: You selected Delete chat or deleted the project, and confirmed the warning that it cannot be undone.
Make sure the chat is not just hidden under the More chats dropdown.
If you exported the chat earlier with Export chat, use that file as your copy.
A chat or project deleted this way cannot be recovered.
Check: No action restores it; contact support if you believe it was never deleted.
Prevent it next time
Work in projects. Put chats that belong to a matter in a project with Add to project. Projects get a recovery window; chats outside a project do not.
Watch the expiry marker. When a chat shows days left or Expires soon, save what you need or move the chat into a project.
Export what you must keep. Use Export chat for anything you need as a record outside Noxtua.
Name your chats. Use Rename so chats are easy to find in All chat history.
Send or copy long drafts before closing the tab. Unsent text stays only in the tab where you typed it.
Open projects you still need. Each visit pushes back the project’s deletion date.
Still not working
First ask your organization’s Noxtua admin: they can check retention settings and recover deleted projects. If that does not solve it, contact Noxtua support at support@noxtua.com.
Please include the following in your request:
Product and area: Noxtua web app, and where you looked (sidebar, All chat history, a project).
What is missing: a chat, a draft, or a project, with its title and the project it was in, or Personal.
Browser: name and version, for example Chrome 141 or Edge 141.
Time of the issue: date, time, and time zone when you last saw it and when you noticed it was gone.
Screenshot: the sidebar or the page where the chat should be.
Error text: the exact message, for example This chat was deleted because its retention period ran out.
Link: the chat or project link, if you saved it.
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