Where are wishlists stored and how long do they last?

Wishlists are stored in the cloud for your store, no account required, with no expiry date. This page gives you the concrete facts to quote when shoppers or your team ask “where does my list live and when does it disappear?”.

The storage model

Each wishlist is a document in Wishlist Hero’s cloud storage, scoped to your store:

Guests: the list exists without any account. The shopper’s browser keeps a reference to it, which is how the same list reappears on their next visit in the same browser.
Logged in shoppers: the list is attached to their customer account and follows them across devices and browsers.
Identified shoppers: when a shopper logs in, their email and name are stored with the list, encrypted at rest.

Guest mode means the wishlist works on the first visit, with zero friction. The trade: a guest list is tied to the browser, so clearing site data loses the reference. The moment the shopper logs in, the list becomes durable across devices. See Guest wishlists and merge.

Retention

No expiry. Wishlists do not expire and nothing is deleted for inactivity. A list from last year is still there.
Across theme changes. Lists live with the store, not the theme; publishing a new theme changes nothing. See Installing on multiple themes.
Across uninstall. If you remove the app and reinstall later, the same lists are waiting. Nothing is wiped on uninstall.
On GDPR deletion. When a customer deletion is processed through Shopify, that shopper’s wishlist and activity are deleted. A store level deletion removes every list for the store.

What this means for your promises to shoppers

You can tell shoppers, honestly:

Your wishlist is saved, no account needed
Log in and the list follows you to any device
The list does not expire

For your own data planning: exports are on demand from the reports pages, per Export wishlist data, and deletion follows Shopify’s GDPR process automatically.