Retention, journaling and legal hold

Retention comes from your industry profile: 6 years for healthcare and for legal and title, 7 years for accounting and tax, 5 years for wealth and RIA with the first two easily accessible, and 1 year on plans without the archive add-on. Journaling writes a copy of every message to immutable storage before delivery, and a legal hold keeps selected items past expiry, deletion or termination until you release it.

Before you start

Compliance or Owner role. Dual approval for releasing holds is set under Console → Security.
Your written retention policy. The profile default matches the common rule for your industry; your own policy may require longer.
For a hold: custodians, matter keywords, date range and the reason you will record.

Steps

Console → Archive & audit → Retention. The screen shows the profile default and the effective retention per scope. Override per user or folder only if your policy requires it; longer is allowed, shorter is not while a hold exists.
Journaling is on for every Hosted mailbox and cannot be switched off by users. The screen shows the last journal timestamp. On Gateway, the relay archives every outbound and, with inbound routing, every inbound message.
Console → Archive & audit → Legal holds → New. Choose custodians, a matter (participants and keywords, such as a file number), a date range, and the reason. Save. Items under hold survive retention expiry, user deletion and account termination.
To release, open the hold → Release → reason. If dual approval is on, a second Owner or Compliance user confirms.

Verify

Retention lists the effective period for every scope with the profile name. Legal holds lists each active hold with its item count, creator and date. The audit log shows the hold creation and any release.

Troubleshooting

Retention shows 1 year but you expected 6. Cause: the archive add-on is not on the plan. Fix: Console → Billing → Plan → add the archive add-on; the longer period applies from then on.
A hold shows zero items. Cause: keywords too narrow or the date range excludes the matter. Fix: test the terms in Search first; a hold follows the same query.
Cannot release a hold. Cause: dual approval is required and you are the creator. Fix: a second Owner or Compliance user approves.
A former employee’s mail is missing. Cause: the mailbox was removed before the archive add-on existed, so only the 1-year window applies. Fix: search by participant and hold what remains.
You need longer than the profile default. Cause: a contract or state rule. Fix: contact support to set a longer period.

Example

Harbor Title, a fourteen-person title and escrow company, is on the legal and title profile with 6-year retention. A buyer disputes the disbursement on a 2023 closing. Maria, the escrow officer, gives the Qualia file number to the Owner, who creates a hold: custodians Maria and the closing assistant, matter keyword the file number, date range the quarter of the closing. The count shows the full thread with the underwriter, lender and both agents. The hold is released after settlement with the reason “matter closed” under dual approval.

FAQ

Which rule sets the default for my profile?

Healthcare follows the 6-year documentation period in 45 CFR 164.316. Wealth follows Rule 204-2(e)(1), five years with the first two easily accessible, at ecfr.gov. Accounting and tax firms under the Safeguards Rule need disposal procedures under 16 CFR 314.4(c)(6); the 7-year default matches common tax-record practice.

Can a user delete a journaled message?

Deleting from the mailbox does nothing to the archive copy. Immutable storage (S3 Object Lock) prevents changes by anyone.

What happens to holds if we leave?

Held items are in the export you can take within 30 days of leaving, before the certificate of destruction.

Can I hold one message?

Yes. Open it in Search and choose Add to hold.

Still stuck? A human answers within 15 minutes on chat, 1 hour by email during business hours (24/7 for outages).