# Local Storage

Local storage provides an additional layer of data management control by allowing the selection of where message data is stored at rest. This is particularly relevant for businesses in regulated industries such as finance, government, or healthcare that must adhere to specific regional data residency policies.

### How Local Storage Works

Local storage is a setting enabled at the WhatsApp business phone number level. It is supported by both the Cloud API and MM Lite API.

When local storage is enabled, the following constraints apply to message content:

* Data-in-use – While being processed, message content may be stored on Meta data centres internationally.
* Data-at-rest – After the processing period, message content is deleted from Meta data centres outside of the specified region and persisted only within the selected local storage region.

### Processing Durations

Local storage applies to both text and media content sent or received via the platform. The following items are included:

* Text messages – The text payload and message body.
* Media messages – Media payloads including audio, documents, images, and videos.
* Template messages – Static templates and the parameters passed at the time of sending (text or media).

A limited set of metadata attributes is also included to associate the encrypted payload with the original message. This metadata is protected via tokenisation and encryption.

### Available data storage regions <a href="#available-regions" id="available-regions"></a>

The following regions are currently supported:

* [x] **APAC**: India, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia
* [x] **LATAM**: Brazil
* [x] **MEA**: South Africa, Bahrain
* [x] **Europe**: EU (Germany), UK, Switzerland
* [x] **NORAM**: Canada

### Limitations

Media files uploaded by a business phone number with local storage enabled are restricted to that specific phone number. These files cannot be shared with other phone numbers associated with the business portfolio.

### Enabling Local Storage

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
Select the WhatsApp number to update.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Click **Manage WhatsApp Business Account**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Navigate to WhatsApp Channel > **Data Storage Region** and click the edit icon.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Select the preferred data storage region and then **save.**
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

Local storage can only be deactivated by contacting our support team.&#x20;


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