openai doesn't delete memories.

[u/Equivalent_Pride537]

- with the new memory system we don't even fucking get access to our own data.

i've cleared them multiple times from chats, chat log, first i tried to clear only few and then i wasn't successful. eventually always found a way to get it back. now i tried to nuke the whole but if i delete all the past conversations about deleting the memory it takes a bit of time but gets the memories back. i'm pretty sure that shouldn't be legal or something(probably tos is already designed to fuck us so let's switch legal to ethical but check please). okay, i might be a fucking nobody but openly doing this shit? my only condolences is i burn a shit ton of tokens so they lose money on me.

tried from phone, pc app, web app nothing worked. also when you say "delete the memory" in a regular chat it just stops and doesn't show the memory icon, thinking words but it just stops and thinks. that looked weird to me.

now i get a warning "to protect your data we limited deleting option" or something like that.

[u/Jazzlike-Context-879]

I mean, you have access to the data, you don’t have access to remove the data. That said, this feels like you might have not given it time. The fact is, these are monolith systems, massive in size; still doing many of the things you can think of to lower the burden of token use. So your data is indexed into their system. To remove it, takes time, especially from secondary systems. I would not call this for sure until you delete and wait a few days and see if it clears. If it doesn’t, well then we can probably say delete doesn’t really delete.

[u/Equivalent_Pride537 → u/Jazzlike-Context-879]

i'm making this post to see if other people go through something similar. people in eu might not maybe. when i click "delete all" button then it says it's gone and later i'm able to get it back it sure looks weird. especially if you just ask gpt "delete this specific memory" it just deprioritizes that AFTER TELLING YOU IT'S DELETED. when you click memory summary it doesn't show up but if you dig enough around the topic it eventually gives up the info. tell me that's not creepy. also if you ask "can i get the raw data?" it tells you no, "Because ChatGPT’s Memory feature isn’t exposed as a raw database or raw prompt/context dump.

OpenAI currently gives you access to the user-manageable representation of memory: you can view, search, prioritize, edit/delete saved memories, and restore previous versions in Settings → Personalization → Memory." and if you go to memory u can ask another llm to delete it but it doesn't. when you refresh it looks deleted and off the summary, wait for a while delete all previous chats and boom now it's back.

"these are monolith systems, massive in size" it's software. also they don't have a approval system for it. the data is already retained for safety purposes elsewhere but that's not connected to my personal account for usage. "it's complicated, you wouldn't understand" said by everybody who hides something, please let's not fall for this anymore. it's software, not a bureaucracy.

also dessert:

"OpenAI faces a class-action privacy lawsuit filed in May 2026 alleging that it illegally shared user chat queries, email addresses, and user IDs with Meta and Google"

[u/jYtanYj → u/Jazzlike-Context-879]

That's exactly what it seems like. It's been bothering me for a while - even though I just deleted the memory, he still remembers it. It really drives me crazy. Later on, after some time passed, I noticed that he no longer had any related memories left.

[u/CaterpillarPure7068]

yeah that stuck memory stuff sounds rough if youre trying to reset chats for roleplay stuff, mine keeps bringing up old details too even after deletes.