What actually gets deleted when I delete a report?

Where and how

Open Reports from the menu, tap the delete icon on the report, and read the confirmation. There are two variants, and the wording tells you which case you are in:

• A sent report: "Are you sure you want to delete this report? The assessor will lose access to the report PDF. Any photo archive already sent, and the photos on this device, are not deleted. This action cannot be undone."
• A local-only copy (a PDF that was generated but never linked to a send): "Are you sure you want to delete this local report copy? This will only remove the PDF from your device."

Exactly what goes, and what stays

Deleted:

• The report record — it disappears from your Reports page and from what your assessor can see for this plot, and the link in the email you sent them stops working.
• The stored report PDF — the copy we hold for assessor access, and the copy on your phone.

Not deleted — worth being precise, because the fear here is usually about evidence:

• Your photos. Nothing on your device is touched except the PDF file itself. Every photo, section state and appendix attachment on the plot survives.
• The photo archive already sent. If you previously sent this plot's photos, that uploaded archive is not removed by deleting the report. (Like every cloud copy, it lasts as long as your account does — long-term custody independent of your account is the assessor's paid Photo Evidence Archive.)
• The plot and project — completely unaffected.

"Cannot be undone" — in context

The deletion itself is immediate and permanent: there is no recovery window for a deleted report (unlike deleting a plot or project, which support can recover for 30 days). But the practical stakes are low, because a report is a generated artefact: the plot still holds everything the report was built from, so sending again from the plot recreates it — same photos, same sections, current data — in a couple of minutes.

The one genuinely unrecoverable case: a report whose plot has since lost photos (cleared device, missing files). Deleting such a report destroys the last good rendering of that evidence set. If a report is the only place some photos still exist in any form, do not delete it — contact support first.

When deleting is the right move

• Clearing out reports for plots that were re-sent under a corrected name.
• Withdrawing a report sent to the wrong recipient — deleting removes their access to the PDF. An email that holds only a link to the report's page (the usual email from 2.1 on) stops working at once, as the portal does. An email with the PDF attached (from a version before 2.1, or a 2.1 send that fell back to it) cannot be un-sent: the PDF stays in their inbox, and because deleting a report leaves the photo archive in place, its photo download link may keep working until its 7 days are up. If cutting off access urgently matters, contact support and we will confirm it is fully closed off.
• Tidying superseded drafts before handover.

If your aim is to replace rather than remove — new photos, corrected sections — you do not need to delete anything: sending again from the plot supersedes the old report automatically.