It sounds like you might be using the Pro version of the program.  Pro only stores 6 previous years plus the current year.  Premium and Quantum store up to 100 years.

If however, you are using Premium or Quantum, then you may have been using it when there was a bug in the program.  In one or two versions, when converting from Basic to Pro or premium, the number of years to clear did not change from 6 to 100 automatically so many people may still have the clear before 6 years ago setting.  Check under Setup, Maintenance, Clear Data, Automatically Clear Data.

Thank you Richard, I am using Pro 50. 

I have a backup of the last 22 years of data, but of course the Sage database has been upgraded often, so retrieving, expanding, then updating from older version to new is a tedious and time consuming exercise to look up six or eight old invoices. 

If you are looking for invoices, then unless you have cleared lookup data, they should still be there.  I thought you were referring to the financial year data like balance sheet, income statement, general ledger reports and general journal reports.  They are gone after 6 years of previous years in Pro.

Yes it is a pain to restore and update each year but you don't have to do all of them, just go back to 5 years ago and restore that one, then 10 years ago, etc. depending on how far you have to go back.  Prior to 2014 you may need to convert first to 2015 then up to 2024 assuming that is the version you are currently using.

Well I’m unable to find payable invoices beyond 6 years.

And yes, I’ve been working my way backwards in six year intervals from back ups, then updating …. Not going to lie, it takes a lot of effort and I’m not happy that the data isn’t easily accessed…. 

After 22 years of Sage (or predecessor’s), I’m actively shopping to replace it for my next fiscal year.