Turn on Store Past Broadcasts through the Creator Dashboard on web before you go live, then download or export each VOD from your Video Producer before it expires. Twitch keeps past broadcasts for 7, 14 or 60 days, depending on your status.
Turn it on before you go live, because nothing can rescue it after
Saving a VOD is a job you do before the stream, not after it. If the Store Past Broadcasts toggle's off when you go live, the broadcast won't be saved and you can't make Highlights or Clips from it. Twitch's help page on on-demand content says Twitch Support can't recover a broadcast that wasn't saved, and that covers a toggle left off, an incompatible configuration and a VOD past its retention period. That's the position as of Nov 2026, and there's no back door.
Streaming from your phone makes this easier to get wrong. The setting can only be enabled through the Creator Dashboard on web, not in the Twitch mobile app. So a phone streamer who's never set it isn't saving anything. If you're still at the stage of getting your stream set up, make this toggle part of that job, and don't leave it until you've got a stream worth keeping.
How long Twitch holds on to your past broadcasts
Your window depends on your status. This is why I wouldn't treat Twitch as an archive: even the longest window ends, and the content goes with it.
| Content | How long it's kept |
|---|---|
| Past broadcasts: Partner, Prime, Turbo | 60 days |
| Past broadcasts: Affiliate | 14 days |
| Past broadcasts: everyone else | 7 days |
| Highlights and Uploads | Stored indefinitely, with a 100-hour combined limit |
If you stream in 2K or vertical (Dual Format), there's a shorter clock on top. Those versions expire 7 days after the stream, and after that the 1080p or horizontal version stays for the rest of your retention period. So if the 2K or vertical version's the one you care about, 7 days is your real deadline, whatever your status.
Save, download or export: the steps
Switch saving on
- Open the Creator Dashboard on web, not the mobile app.
- Go to your Stream Settings.
- Turn on Store Past Broadcasts.
- Go live.
One thing to know before you flip it. Once storage is on, VODs are published by default, so your past streams will go up on their own. The exceptions are streams in your Excluded Categories, or everything if you've disabled Always Publish VODs. Those need your review before they're published.
Find the broadcast
Go to your Creator Dashboard, open the Content dropdown and select Video Producer. After a stream, your saved broadcast is there to review, turn into Highlights and Clips, or download.
Download it
- In Video Producer, click the 3 vertical dots next to the video.
- Choose download.
Three things to expect. Twitch has no bulk download, so you're doing them one at a time. The download may take a while to start. And if Audio Recognition muted the video, your copy will be muted too, so downloading won't get the sound back.
Export it to YouTube
- Connect your YouTube account on your Connections page.
- Verify your YouTube account if you need to go past the 15 minute upload limit. I'd do this before you export, because a long stream is exactly what you're sending over.
- Use the Export option to upload the video to YouTube directly from Twitch.
Which one should you use? Export if you want the video on YouTube anyway, since you don't need to keep a file yourself. Download if you want your own copy. Either way, don't wait for the end of your window on anything you'd hate to lose.
Keeping the best bits indefinitely with Highlights
Highlights are the way to keep something on Twitch with no expiry date. You create them from a saved broadcast in Video Producer, and Highlights and Uploads are stored indefinitely. Clips come from the same saved broadcast, and how clipping works on Twitch has the detail on those. No saved broadcast means neither of them is possible, which takes you back to the toggle.
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There's a limit, though. Highlights and Uploads share a 100-hour storage limit. Past broadcasts don't count toward it, so saving VODs won't eat into your space, but every Highlight you keep will. Unpublishing a Highlight doesn't free anything up either: you've got to delete it.
My verdict: use Highlights for the parts you want kept on Twitch, and use download or export for full streams. A shared 100 hours isn't somewhere to store everything you've ever broadcast.
Where Twitch's help stops
- It names the Store Past Broadcasts toggle but doesn't give the exact label path inside Stream Settings.
- The individual steps for creating a Highlight are in a separate article.
- It doesn't say whether older accounts get different grace periods.
Quick answers
How long does Twitch keep VODs?
Partners, Prime and Turbo get 60 days, Affiliates get 14 days and all other broadcasters get 7 days.
Can I turn on VOD saving in the Twitch mobile app?
No. Store Past Broadcasts can only be enabled through the Creator Dashboard on web, so phone streamers have to set it there first or their broadcasts won't be saved.
Can Twitch recover a VOD that wasn't saved?
No. Twitch Support can't recover a broadcast that wasn't saved, whether the toggle was off, the configuration was incompatible or it passed its retention period.
Can I download all my Twitch VODs at once?
No. Twitch has no bulk download, so you click the 3 vertical dots next to each video and choose download.
Do past broadcasts count toward the 100-hour limit?
No. Only Highlights and Uploads count, and you have to delete them to free up space, because unpublishing doesn't.
