Data Deletion and Account Closure Notice

Can you close your account directly?

Yes - you can delete your own account from within the app using the "Delete Account" button on the Settings page. When you confirm, a verification link is sent to your email; your account is not deleted until you click that link and confirm one final time. The link is valid for 1 hour - if it expires, you can start the process again from Settings.

If you run into an issue with this flow, or would like us to close your account for another reason, you can reach us at support@yazar.io.

Deleting a book: soft delete

When you choose "Remove Book from Library" in Book Settings, your book is NOT immediately deleted from the database. It is only marked as "removed" (soft delete) - from that point, no one, including you, can see or access the book through normal means, but the content technically remains in the database. As soon as this completes, a security notice is emailed to you naming the book that was removed and warning you to change your password if you didn't do this - so you can notice if your account has been compromised.

You can manage this book yourself from the Deleted Books page in your Library: a deleted book stays restorable for at least 30 days. A second reminder email is sent at least 24 hours before permanent deletion (because this maintenance job runs once a day, the actual gap can be 24-48 hours - we don't claim an exact time). The book is only queued for automatic permanent deletion once BOTH conditions are met: 30 days have passed, AND at least 24 hours have passed since that reminder email was successfully sent. If the reminder email fails to send for any reason, the book is NOT physically deleted and stays restorable on the Deleted Books page - this is a deliberate safety choice.

If you want to permanently delete the book before the 30 days are up, the "Permanently Delete" button on the Deleted Books page sends a verification link to your email, valid for 1 hour; the book is not deleted until you click that link.

Notes work a bit differently: no time limit

Deleting a note in the Notes section also (like books) first moves it to a "Deleted Notes" filter, and you can restore it or permanently delete it yourself. The real difference: notes have no 30-day limit like books do - a deleted note stays in "Deleted Notes" indefinitely until you permanently delete or restore it yourself.

When uploaded images are deleted

When you replace or remove an image (e.g. uploading a new cover), the old image file is generally deleted right away.

When you permanently delete an entity (a character, location, etc.), its image is also deleted immediately.

When you "remove a book from your library" (soft delete), the images belonging to that book and its entities are DELIBERATELY left untouched - they remain in storage so the book can be restored. These images stay in storage until the book is permanently deleted.

Storage lifecycle and orphan file cleanup

In some cases (e.g. if an operation is interrupted), an image file can be left in storage without being linked to any record (an "orphan" file). To address this, every time you open your library, a background cleanup check runs at most once per day per user: it compares the files in your folder against the real references in the database, and deletes files that are more than 48 hours old and are no longer linked to any record.

This cleanup PROTECTS images belonging to soft-deleted (removed but not permanently deleted) books - so images of a book you've "removed from your library" are not deleted by this automated cleanup.

How long data may remain in backups

Our database infrastructure provider (Supabase) runs its own standard backup routines. A deleted account/book is fully purged from backups once the provider's own retention period for that backup has elapsed.

What happens when an account is deleted

When your account is deleted (whether by you from Settings, or by our support team), the following data is permanently removed (following the `cascade delete` rules in the database schema - related records are automatically deleted):

• •Your authentication record (auth) and profile (profiles)
• •All books you own (books), and ALL content within them: characters/locations/organizations/lore/etc. (entities), the links between them (links), and your notes (notes)
• •Your Author Card (author_cards) and all items on it (card_items)
• •All images you've stored (covers, profile photo, Author Card images)

Contact

For account deletion, permanent book deletion, or any request related to this page: support@yazar.io