History and Resuming Work
How the documents you open are kept in this browser for a set time, reopening and deleting them from history, and getting your workspace back after the tab is closed.
Deste keeps the documents you open only on this device, in the storage the browser sets aside for this site (IndexedDB). Documents never go to a server, and they’re deleted automatically when the period you choose ends.
What’s kept
- Every document you open — listed in the History tab.
- Your workspace: which documents are open and in what order, their selections and page edits (removing, rotating, reordering, moving between documents, splitting). This is a small record; the documents themselves are the copies in history.
Picking up where you left off
When you close the tab and open the site again, your documents are where you left them and the status line says “N documents reopened where you left off”. Documents you keep open are refreshed each time you open the site; their period is counted from the day you last used them.
If a document is no longer there because its period ended or it was deleted from history in the meantime, it’s skipped and you’re told so; the others still open.
How long it’s kept
Settings → Keep history in this browser:
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Off | Nothing is kept; existing history is deleted. Documents go away with the tab. |
| 1 day | Documents are deleted after one day. |
| 7 days (default) | Documents are deleted after one week. |
| 30 days | Documents are deleted after one month. |
If the total size goes over 1 GB, the oldest documents are deleted first, even if their period hasn’t ended.
The History tab
Each row shows the document’s name, the date it was opened and its size. The buttons on the right:
- Eye — opens the document in the large preview without adding it to the workspace.
- Re-queue (down arrow) — adds the document back to the workspace.
- Trash can — permanently deletes the document from this browser.
Clear History in the toolbar deletes everything; with the arrow next to it you can delete only older documents, using options such as Older than 1 day, Older than 1 week and Older than 1 month. Each option shows beforehand how many documents and how much space it will delete; if there’s nothing to delete, it’s disabled.
If you delete an open document from history, it stays open in that tab but won’t come back once the tab is closed; the delete confirmation tells you this.
Shared computers
Someone who uses the same computer and the same browser can see the history. On such a device, set history to Off, or use Clear History when you’re done. In a private browser window, everything stored is gone when the window closes.
The browser may clear this storage on its own when the disk fills up, and clearing site data also deletes the history. History isn’t a backup — download your important results with Save PDF.