Under CCP 2023.030(f), a party cannot be sanctioned for destruction of ESI if the evidence was lost before the party that possessed or controlled it became objectively aware the evidence was relevant to reasonably foreseeable future litigation, meaning the future litigation was probable or likely to arise from an event, and not merely when litigation was a remote possibility. Here, the district destroyed a videotape of a sexual assault before it was on notice of the reasonable likelihood of litigation about the assault. The victim’s father learned of the assault the next day but didn’t notify the district of his intent to sue until he filed a notice of claim six months later. The mere fact of a sexual assault did not alert the district to the probability of suit, and it received no notice that the student’s parents had hired counsel. Making a routine internal report about the incident also didn’t signal that litigation was reasonably probable