[plasticsoprano]

I mean, you didn’t give it enough time. All of these cloud storage platforms are databases at their core. When you delete the file you’re updating the database entry, the data (and the record of it) is still there until their purge process runs, which could be days or weeks.

If it’s still there at a month I’d be surprised and be checking terms of service to see what they commit to.

[dangus]

I think it may be as long as 180 days, but I haven’t found anything super specific from Apple.

Remember that Apple’s typical customer is non-technical. Keeping files in case of a catastrophic deletion is safer for their customers.

They want to give the person who calls them up and says “I deleted all my family photos 31 days ago!” A good experience.

[mnls]

If Apple truly kept files "a little longer" for customer service, you'd expect clear documentation of the retention period and working recovery tools