> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.lithnet.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.lithnet.io/ams/v3.0/help-and-support/advanced-help-topics/password-history-retention.md).

# Password history retention

Access Manager allows you to store a history of previously used local admin passwords, so that if you recover a device from a backup, you can go back in time and get the local admin password that was active at the time the backup was taken.

AMS policies allow you to define both a minimum number of passwords to keep, as well as the minimum number of days a password should be retained for.

If both the `Number of previous passwords to keep` and `Number of days to keep previous passwords` setting is in use, then old passwords will not be removed until both thresholds have passed. For example, if you had a policy to generate a new password every day, to keep a minimum of 5 passwords, and to keep passwords for 365 days, you would have 365 passwords in your history. More examples are in the table provided below.

| Maximum age | Passwords to keep | Days to keep | Effective number of passwords |
| ----------- | ----------------- | ------------ | ----------------------------- |
| 1           | 50                | 0            | 50                            |
| 1           | 0                 | 50           | 50                            |
| 1           | 5                 | 365          | 365                           |
| 1           | 7                 | 1            | 7                             |
| 1           | 7                 | 7            | 7                             |


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