Expiry and cleanup are separate
At expiry, the public share becomes unavailable. Physical cleanup follows through Astral's bounded cleanup process, so a short delay does not make the link usable again.
Choose the shortest useful lifetime
Shorter lifetimes reduce the window in which a forwarded link can be used. Signed-in users have more presets and can enter a custom duration within the product limit.
Note: Forever is not available to anonymous or Free accounts and should never replace your own backup.
Changing a lifetime
An owner can edit an active file from Dashboard. An expired file cannot be revived; upload it again if a new share is needed.